front cover of Democracy, Inc.
Democracy, Inc.
The Press and Law in the Corporate Rationalization of the Public Sphere
David S. Allen
University of Illinois Press, 2005
In Democracy, Inc., David S. Allen exposes the vested interests behind the U.S. slide toward conflating corporate values with public and democratic values. He argues that rather than being institutional protectors of democratic principles, the press and law perversely contribute to the destruction of public discourse in the United States today.

Allen utilizes historical, philosophical, sociological, and legal sources to trace America's gradual embrace of corporate values. He argues that such values, including winning, efficiency, and profitability actually limit democratic involvement by devaluing discursive principles, creating an informed yet inactive public. Through an examination of professionalization in both the press and the law, corporate free speech rights, and free speech as property, Democracy, Inc. demonstrates that today's democracy is more about trying to control and manage citizens than giving them the freedom to participate. Allen not only calls on institutions to reform the way they understand and promote citizenship but also asks citizens to adopt a new ethic of public discourse that values understanding rather than winning.

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More Speech, Not Less
Communications Law in the Information Age
Mark Sableman. Foreword by Paul Simon
Southern Illinois University Press, 1997

On a daily basis we are confronted with "more speech, not less"—more news reports, more television channels, more publications, more electronic communications. Communications laws have expanded in response to the proliferation of communications, and these laws affect everyone.

Communications lawyer Mark Sableman uses recent case studies, practical examples, and plain language to describe and analyze the broad spectrum of modern communications laws and policies. In these essays, Sableman helps communications professionals as well as informed citizens understand the law.

The constitutional foundation for the information age is settled: radical solutions on either side have been rejected. Neither First Amendment absolutism nor untrammeled content-based censorship will rule in America. But within the remaining middle area, many key policy choices are being made by courts and policy makers. Intricate webs of legal do’s and don’ts, practical pitfalls, and effective safe harbors are being developed across the broad spectrum of communications law.

In this guide to existing law, developing trends, and critical policy determinations, Sableman discusses privacy, Internet communications and policy, censorship, libel and slander, copyright and intellectual property, advertising, broadcasting, and journalistic confidentiality. Through actual cases and practical examples, he examines and explains both the existing rules for communications professionals and the developing policies that deserve the attention and scrutiny of informed citizens. Sableman approaches these subjects as a practicing lawyer experienced in both business and media communications.

The phrase "more speech, not less" describes not only the growing cacophony of the information age, but also one approach to legal policy—Justice Louis D. Brandeis’s preference for "more speech, not enforced silence" in all but the most extreme situations. Drawing from his strong advocacy of free speech, Sableman hopes to stimulate informed debate among all who are concerned about the power of information and the magic of words and images.

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Pressing the Police and Policing the Press
The History and Law of the U.S. Press-Police Relationship
Scott Memmel
University of Missouri Press, 2024
In the second half of 2020 and continuing into 2021, protests against racial injustice spread across the United States after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis Police Department officers. Members of the press covered these demonstrations, documenting what transpired and conveying the important messages involved. In so doing, the news media held law enforcement accountable through critical reporting on the actions of the police, with police officers responding in part by intimidating journalists in the field using force and arrest—this in the name of keeping the peace and protecting the public from further harm.
 
What transpired during this troubled time cast a bright light on the contemporary relationship between the press and police in the United States. The relationship between these two fundamental institutions is, however, a long and complicated one, dating back to colonial British North America. In the mid-19th century, (1830s–1850s) both the press and the police began to take their modern forms, and since then have continued to develop, routinely interacting with each other as journalists and police officers often found themselves responding to the same crimes and events. At times, members of both institutions managed to co-exist or even cooperate and made efforts to help one another, while at other times they butted heads to the point of conflict, the professional boundaries between journalists and police officers seemingly blurred.
 
As both the press and the police have fallen under deep scrutiny in more modern times, the present moment marks what is, perhaps, an opportune time to focus on the political, economic, social, and technological problems they face. In “Pressing the Police and Policing the Press,” Scott Memmel offers the first book-length study of the history and legal landscape of the press-police relationship. Each chapter focuses on interactions between the press and the police during a particular era, introducing relevant societal context and how both institutions evolved and responded to that context. Memmel concludes his study with recommendations on how, going forward, the press and the police might work together to tackle some of the similar issues they face and better serve the public.
 
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Regulating the Press
Tom O'Malley and Clive Soley
Pluto Press, 2000


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