Politics in the USA, Sixth Edition

The media and politics 189

will vary from election to election. In a landslide election, television and the
media as a whole may have little influence on the result, but in close elec-
tions it may be decisive. The election of 2000 was as close as they get. How-
ever, neither of the candidates’ performances on television was particularly
impressive, and a new perspective on the effect of television on the voters
is emerging. Marjorie Hershey has argued that ‘the idea that presidential
candidates ought to be evaluated on the basis of their entertainment value
had become well entrenched in media coverage as well as in public opinion.’

Freedom of the press

The First Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1791, states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,

or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to

petition the government for a redress of grievances.

During the eighteenth century the English courts, interpreting the common
law, had established that the government had no right to censor printed mat-
ter before publication, although the authorities could sue authors or publish-
ers for ‘seditious libel’ after publication. The English common law was ‘re-
ceived’ in the American colonies, where it was seen as a bulwark against the
domination of the royal governors. With the establishment of the Federal
Constitution, however, the former colonists feared possible oppression from
the federal government and the Bill of Rights was passed in order to protect
their freedoms, including the freedom of the press. The Bill of Rights was in-
tended as a restriction on the powers of the federal Congress, not of the state
governments, which many saw as the defenders of the rights of their citizens.
It was not until the twentieth century that the Supreme Court applied the
Bill of Rights as a check on the powers of the states in the field of the regula-
tion of press freedom, as in other areas of civil rights.
In the early years of the Republic the freedom of the press did come under
attack from the federal government in the form of the restrictions embodied
in the Alien and Sedition Acts, but these expired in 1801 and it was not until
the First World War that restrictions on press freedom by the federal gov-
ernment became an issue again, although the states and local governments
could, and did, pass laws restrictive of the freedom of the press. In 1917 and
1918 Congress passed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, designed to
meet the threat of actions subversive of the war effort, and later used to
meet the perceived danger of communism. These Acts made it a crime to
‘disrupt or discourage recruiting or enlistment service, or utter, print, or
publish disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of
government, the Constitution, soldiers and sailors, flag, or uniform of the