USA Today - One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.
The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.
Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about the right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little.
I'm certainly not in agreement with the idea of government approval for stories published by journalists. One of the most important aspects of a free press is its ability to publish stories which are critical of the government. A government review policy would hinder that ability to the great detriment of freedom.
I think there is an impulse in today's environment of heavily biased news reporting to desire limitations for reporters, however. Too many times have we citizens sat at home and watched the likes of Dan Rather or Peter Jennings report stories with a left-wing bias feeling hopeless in our inability to set the record straight. But media bias has existed as long as there has been media. The best way to combat media bias is to provide as many alternate sources of information as possible and allow the citizens to decide which reporting is right or wrong.
But if we're going to talk about freedoms of the press there is one area that could certainly use addressing: Reporting of confidential or privileged information. I think it should be illegal for reporters to print or broadcast stories that originated from "leaked" information. Too often our politicians play politics by "leaking" damaging classified information to reporters in order to derail the opposition. This sort of thing is hurtful to our way of government.
Reporters who publish leaked information should face criminal charges and should be compelled to divulge the source from which the got the information.