War and Press Freedom The Problem of Prerogative Power

by Smith, Jeffery A.

• ISBN13: 9780195099454
• ISBN10: 0195099451
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-02-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the two centuries from the ratification of the First Amendment in 1791 through the Gulf War in 1991, the American press lacked an adequate right to analyze and report on the nation's armed conflicts. When restrictions were challenged as violations of the Constitution, military regulations and federal laws were justified as necessary under the "higher law" of survival. Is there law more important than the Constitution which allows prerogative powers to be used in a time of war or national crisis? This groundbreaking and provocative study, examining law and history over these two hundred years, argues that press freedom cannot and should not be suspended during armed conflict. The military and the media must work together because neither has authority over the other.

Author Biography

Jeffery A. Smith is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Part One: Intentions and Interpretations
War, Autocracy, and the Constitution	3	(24)
The Purpose of the Press Clause	27	(18)
Suspending the Press Clause	45	(30)
Part Two: ``Higher Law'' in Practice
The Federalists and the French Revolution	75	(846)
The Rise of Presidential Prerogatives	921
The Bureaucratization of Wartime Censorship	127	(42)
The Long, Cold War	169	(28)
Part Three: The Risks of Repression
The Mass Media: Scapegoats and Sycophants	197	(24)
Conclusion	221	(8)
Notes	229	(84)
Index	313