Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Q. Do editors today pay as much attention to First Amendment as they
did 30 years ago?
A. Some editors pay more attention to freedom of information and the
First Amendment than when I first started to work with ASNE. Those who
do pay attention today, do so with greater intensity. But I think today
it’s a smaller portion of the total number of editors that give the First
Amendment much attention.
Q. Why?
A. Don’t know. One FOI chair in the early years said to me at the end
of his term, "I guess we have taken care of all the First Amendment problems.
You won’t have anything else to do." Some people may have thought that
the problems were not that serious or that they were solvable.
Q. Are the problems of protecting the First Amendment ever solvable?
A. No. We will always have sustained attacks on the First Amendment,
such as the present flag desecration amendment. The battle never ceases.
It shifts to different arenas, but it doesn’t go away.
Q. What is the principal arena today?
A. It’s the new technology — the Internet, cyberspace and how the courts
interpret First Amendment issues for the new media. The courts and the
law are never as fast to adapt to new technologies as other aspects of
society. When radio came in, the courts weren’t sure that libel, rather
than slander, applied. Radio was spoken and there wasn’t a permanent record.
First Amendment rights were a long time coming to motion pictures. Eventually,
the courts did come around to the fact that the First Amendment does apply
to all media. But it is always difficult for the courts adjust their thinking
to how the First Amendment applies to new technologies.
Q. During your time as ASNE legal counsel, which president was most
supportive of the First Amendment?
A. Abraham Lincoln.
Q. What is the single most effective thing that editors could do
to help preserve the First Amendment?
A. Explain to their readers the value of the First Amendment and what
it means to the reader. I don’t know why editors and publishers appear
reticent to explain why the First Amendment matters to the public and to
the news gathering and publication process.
