Political philosophy . . . Freedom of the Press. What say you?

  1. tsmog profile image86
    tsmogposted 4 months ago

    An overview to get things started . . .

    Political philosophy, also known as political theory, is the study of politics, government, and the relationship between people and society:

    Topics
    Political philosophy covers a wide range of topics, including democracy, freedom, justice, rights, law, and the distribution of power.

    Purpose
    Political philosophy seeks to understand the nature of political systems and institutions, and to generate visions of the good society

    From a conservative blog by Thomas D. Klingenstein arrives a composition . . .

    The Founders’ Notions of the Freedom of the Press (Oct 11, 2024)
    https://tomklingenstein.com/the-founder … s5fNX4sE8w

    Editor's Note

    Freedom of the press is often thought of as a black-and-white issue: either the government formally restricts the activities of publications or it doesn’t.

    But as Arthur Milikh explains, the status of freedom enjoyed by the press also depends on their own self-regulation. Some of today’s journalists, who participate in the government’s inching toward tyranny, may find themselves on the other side of the tracks when the governmental power they were emboldening becomes too expansive.


    [Hint: About a 4,000 word essay, so is about 16+ minute read]

    [Note: Though is based on the U.S. Founding fathers take on the Freedom of the Press I suspect is applicable worldwide especially today with the speed of information and the spread of written material in who knows how many languages and format. For instance, the Bible has been translated into 704 languages.]

    Some notable excerpts for enticement. It opens with . . .

    "Freedom of the press didn’t always exist. At only four hundred years old, it’s relatively new. Before then, official limits always determined what could and couldn’t be published. Sometimes there was harsh and exacting censorship, as in sixteenth-century Europe, which famously prosecuted and destroyed Galileo for challenging church authority. Sometimes the censorship regime was looser, as in ancient Athens, where philosophical writings circulated quietly though somewhat freely. Nonetheless, Athens put Socrates to death for speaking against the city’s gods. Censorship always was the default position."

    A little further along . . .

    "The Founders built upon these principles, elevating them to the status of a right. Madison explained the logic in his essay On Property: As free and equal individuals, our minds belong to us, for no one has the right to control them. Similarly, our speech, an extension of our mind, also belongs to us, as no one has a right to control our speech. And by extension, our writings and publications are the products of our minds, just as is our speech. This is half-way to explaining the unity of the First Amendment: Our conscience, speech, publications, are all products of our mind, and are thus inviolable.

    Freedom of the press is a radical departure from all the past, with enormous political and moral stakes. It was never only about newspapers and journalists. It’s about the very possibility of enlightenment, and its two core components: the flourishing of political liberty and the flourishing of science. Thomas Jefferson thought most deeply and clearly about this double goal, as he nicely summarized in an 1804 letter:

    No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press.

    That is followed closely with . . .

    "The Founders had five major arguments justifying this core institution’s political effects: (1) the freedom of the press allows a free people to check its elected and appointed government officials through publications, (2) it allows a free people to organize itself in opposition to a government which violates rights, (3) it creates common sentiments and ideas among the people, (4) it encourages the blossoming of the intellect, and (5) it cultivates rational habits of mind in the public. The Founders believed that these benefits cannot be established and safeguarded otherwise. Which is precisely why so many powerful forces want to limit what can be said or written today.

    Interestingly enough about midway it states . . .

    "But the preservation of political liberty is only half of the story. The other half, as noted, is the promotion of science, which is nearly impossible without the freedom of the press. Again, the stakes are much greater and deeper than newspapers and journalists; the possibility of enlightenment itself is at stake. As strange as it is for us to hear, because today we all live in the atmosphere of science, modern natural science is an innovation with enormous moral and political consequences. No one elaborated these consequences better than the French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650), a founder of modern science, and a great influence on Jefferson, along with Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. The latter two, along with Descartes, are the creators of modern science."

    The concluding last three paragraphs shares . . .

    "Many Western elites today do not understand the stakes of maintaining a free press, though they sometimes pay lip service to it. In siding with the government or the ruling faction in their hopes of crushing their political opposition once and for all, they are creating something far worse than we have today. The absence of a responsible and free press means the coming of a new era — not of establishing social justice once and for all, but of political corruption, governmental mismanagement, usurpations of rights, and national decline, all of which at some point become irremediable.

    More to the point, today’s journalists who use their powers to side with an increasingly tyrannical state do not see that the position they currently occupy is temporary. The transition from democracy to tyranny is facilitated by a seemingly free press, which obtains for itself the petty benefits from assisting the government (the career boosts, the access, the doggie treats). But the next phase of the tyranny they help to usher in will make of the press an unwilling house pet. Not only will this mean a clearly subordinate role rather than a partnership, but worse: It means suffering real threats, manipulations, and a forced drive toward unchosen, illegitimate goals, by a power far stronger than it, now unfettered and unrestrained.

    Nor do they yet see the effects on the country and the Constitution that currently protects them: the end of any objections to the state’s direction, but only flattery and compliance; and the ensuing corruption, theft, the death of innovation and originality, the selling-out of the country; the criminality (national and local); the loss of prosperity, and the unchecked losses in foreign policy abroad, will be beyond the press’s control to stop.

    Is Freedom of the Press a watch dog of tyranny in any form?

    Can the Free Press be tyrannical itself?

    Is Freedom of the Press a provocateur agency for change or unification?

    If you read the article, did the founders get it right?

    Should the Press in any format be limited/censured? By whom? For whom? Why?

    Thoughts, criticisms, accolades, and/or commentary?

     
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