A Free and Responsible Press: A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines, and Books (Midway Reprint Series) (Paperback)

~ Robert D. Leigh (Editor) "THE Commission set out to answer the question: Is the freedom of the press in danger?..." (more)
Key Phrases: press performance, United States, First Amendment, New York (more...)

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Product Description

The question of how much freedom the press should enjoy has been debated throughout American history. In 1942 an impartial commission was formed to study mass communication, evaluate the performance of the media, and make recommendations for possible regulation of the press. This book is the general report of that commission.

The Commission on Freedom of the Press began with the premise that freedom of the press is essential to political liberty; it is unique among the freedoms, for it promotes and protects all the rest. At the same time, the commission feared the concentration of media control into fewer and fewer hands, stating, "It [is] imperative that the great agencies of mass communication show hospitality to ideas which their owners do not share." The commission concluded that any regulation of the media must come from within, not from the government.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (May 15, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226471357
• ISBN-13: 978-0226471358
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #405,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Freedom to be Responsible, October 17, 2000

By A Customer

The Commission on Freedom of the Press issued its report, titled A Free and Responsible Press, in 1947. Often nicknamed after its chairman University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins, it had a number of other luminaries among its members, including Zechariah Chafee Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr, Harold Lasswell, Archibald MacLeish, and Arthur Schlesinger Sr.

The report concluded that freedom of the press was in danger unless steps were taken to ensure accountability. The Commission's report was highly critical of the way in which the press exercised its freedom and urged, among other things, that government create media to act as models for the private press and that public rights prevail over private rights in construing freedom of the press.

In a noteworthy passage in the first chapter, the Commission set the tone for its report when it observed:

"To protect the press is no longer automatically to protect the citizen or the community. The freedom of the press can remain a right of those who publish only if it incorporates into itself the right of the citizen and the public interest.

....

"[The press] must be accountable to society for meeting the public need and for maintaining the rights of citizens and the almost forgotten rights of speakers who have no press. It must know that its faults and errors have ceased to be private vagaries and have become public dangers. ... Freedom of the press for the coming period can only continue as an accountable freedom. Its moral right will be conditioned on its acceptance of this accountability. Its legal right will stand unaltered as its moral duty is performed."

The report was not well-received by the press at the time, which criticized it as the product of a bunch of ivory tower academics. But it has continued to be popular even 50 years after its release in journalism schools, and it continues to be the jumping-off point for analyses of the press's social responsibility. Though somewhat dated, a similar book, which devotes a chapter to social responsibility, is Four Theories of the Press.

One might think that freedom included the freedom to be irresponsible; this book takes the opposing view.