Filming the First: Cinematic Portrayals of Freedom of the Press (Politics, Literature, & Film)

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from abridging freedom of the press. But, as the printed press has been transformed into mass media with Americans now more likely to get their political information from television or social media than from print, confidence in this important, mediating institution has fallen dramatically. Movies, in their role as cultural artifacts, have long reflected and influenced those public attitudes, inventing such iconic phrases as “follow the money” from All the President’s Men and “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore” from Network . Filming the First: Cinematic Portrayals of Freedom of the Press analyzes eighteen films that span from Citizen Kane to Spotlight showing changes in how the press have been portrayed over time, which voices receive the most attention and why, the relationship between the press’s “Fourth Estate” role and the imperatives of capitalism, and how, despite the First Amendment’s seemingly absolute language, the government has sometimes been able to limit what the public can read or view. Cover Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Censorship in a Time of War WAR IS DIFFERENT, AND SO IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, VIETNAM! “THE GUYS IN THE REAR, WITH THE BEER” A SUPPORTING CAST OF INANIMATE OBJECTS WAR, UNSCRIPTED NOT ALL CENSORSHIP IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL MONTAGE WAR, OFF SCRIPT DIFFERENT, BUT THE FIRST AMENDMENT STILL EXISTS WAR NOTES Chapter 2 A Media Mogul Battles against His Fictional Doppelganger THE REVOLUTION OF THE PENNY PRESS The Rise of Charles Foster Kane The Fall of Charles Foster Kane Profits versus Personal Ambition AND CENSORSHIP CONCLUSION NOTES Chapter 3 Heroic Newspaper Reporters, Editors, and Publishers Battle the President INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM “Woodstein” Is on the Case Dramatizing the Story Sources and Shield Laws Following the Money Pays Off An Uncertain Ending Invisible Women Decides to Publish The The Supreme Court Rules INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM HAS NOT DIED NOTES Chapter 4 Technology Transforms the Press into the Media A CHANGING PRESS (MEDIA) LANDSCAPE “Mad as Hell” Stereotypical Women? Howard’s End The Continuing Significance of THE ORIGINS OF Mark Zuckerberg’s Rosebud Inventing Facebook and Fighting for Credit From Social to News Media NEW MEDIA, THE FIRST AMENDMENT, AND THE LAW THE MEDIA AND THEIR MESSAGE NOTES Chapter 5 “How Can We Possibly Approve and Check the Story . . . ?” Paying a Heavy Price for “Go[ing] Right at” McCarthy Objectivity or Editorializing? The Importance of Cinematic Techniques in “This Is Coverage, Not Controversy.” Well, Not Yet Anyway. “He’ll Get Himself Shot . . . ” “Serve a Public Function” “Reporters” Checking Power NOTES Chapter 6 Testing the Limits of Freedom The Opening Salvo US Versus English Libel Law “A Touchstone Moment” “A Verbal Yellow Star” Nothing but the Truth “The Book Was the Key; the Book Tied It All Together” “This Is a Book” “This Suit Isn’t about Censorship” The Fourth Circuit’s Decision The “‘Most Dangerous Publisher in the World’” Words Have Consequences NOTES Chapter 7 Responsibility Matters FACTS MATTER DIALOGUE MATTERS “Events Rapidly Overtaking Themselves” A “Little Brother to All the President’s Men” “The Fearless Pursuit and Expression of Truth” TRUST MATTERS Individual Responsibility “A ROSE, BY ANY OTHER WORD” “IN THE END IT COMES DOWN TO TRUST” NOTES Chapter 8 Creating Protagonists, Competing Interests, and Uncertain Legal Standards CREATING LARRY FLYNT Making an Honest Buck The Obscenity Trials Revealing Sources Larry Flynt’s Revealing Advertisement Cheering for the Antihero? AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY INTEREST As American as Apple Pie—The National Security Justification MIRROR IMAGES AND UNRESOLVED PRESS CLAUSE ISSUES CONCLUSION: ODD PAIRINGS AND BAD LAW? NOTES Chapter 9 A Tale of One Press Clause and Two Journalisms SERIOUS JOURNALISM IN Creating Investigative Journalism via Cinematic Technique: The Slow Build Shadows on the Spotlight PRESS SENSATIONALISM AND ITS HUMAN COST IN Creating Sensationalism through Cinematic Technique: Blaring Headlines Journalism The Contrast with ANALYSIS: DIFFERENT JOURNALISMS, FOR DIFFERENT IDENTITIES? NOTES Chapter 10 Mainstream Press Negligence and Its Effects HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: “THE NEGLIGENT, NON-INTEREST OF THE STRAIGHT PRESS” IN THE US HIV/AIDS CRISES IN THE 1980S FIGHTING WITHIN OR AGAINST THE SYSTEM? Giving What the Press Wouldn’t, Thirty Years Later Beyond Doctrine . . . BREAKING THE SILENCE THAT DESTROYS Layers of Inequalities FROM CONSCIOUSNESS TO VISIBILITY, WITHOUT THE FOURTH ESTATE NOTES Conclusion SELECTIVE STORYTELLING CHECKS AND BALANCES DO EXCEPTIONS PROVE THE RULE? PROFIT AND LOSS FAKE NEWS NOTES Bibliography Index About the Authors