The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution guarantees Freedom of the Press. The Founders knew that the Press could be dishonest. They had used the early colonial newspapers to distribute political propaganda and some military misinformation to confound the British. The Revolution was a success, yet even with that knowledge of the power of the Press, the Founders wanted it unrestrained by government. They left it to The People to sort between facts and fiction.
Today, the printed Press is a dinosaur. There are few precious pamphlets to be circulated. The Public has not gotten lazy, just more efficient. Now the News is on a touch screen 24/7. But a free Press doesn’t exist.
The legacy media has moved into the modern electronic world. Now it is all about clicks to advertising. But the legacy media has also been acquired by a cabal of Tech oligarchs who are colluding with their social media Big Tech brethren. This monopolistic behavior has become a dangerous threat to individual freedom. The last Presidential election results were the result of this threat coming to fruition.
It is difficult to fathom the reason why the modern Ministry of Truth, using its powerful language of Newspeak, has linked arms with the Democratic Party. Of course, this didn’t just happen overnight. The Progressive push towards Socialism has been going on since FDR. It achieved massive successes with LBJ’s Great Society, Medicare and then ObamaCare. These Progressive successes were at the expense of Liberty.
The biggest losers so far in the Progressive move to Socialism have been those in the Black community. Unfortunately, they don’t know that. They continue to be coerced by race baiters and their new incarnation, BLM Inc. They also continue to be used by the Democratic Party to stay in power. The Black militants claim there is a Revolution coming. Actually, all they have to do is leave the Democrat plantation to achieve true Freedom. But, of course, the “free press” will never tell them that.
You make some astute points, Martin. Having taught Journalism for 30+ years, I have seen the news media move from objective-fair-balanced news reporting to what has become popular the past several decades as "advocacy Journalism," -- using the power of the press to advance social and political agendas. From a media theory known as Critical/Cultural Theory, which came from Europe beginning with the Frankfurt School in the 1920-30s, to Neo-Marxism in the 1960-70s and developed by the British theorist Stuart Hall (University of Birmingham), the media is increasingly viewed as a positive force for not just reporting but advancing a variety of social-political-environmental movements. Thus, the prescience of George Orwell and others -- whoever controls the language (Noam Chomsky) and the media (propagandists from Sigmund Freud's nephew and father of modern propaganda Edward Bernays) to the rise of social media's ability to censor the sitting president of the United States and anyone else who challenges the mainstream narratives. . .eventually controls the hearts and minds of media consumers, a perfect storm for intellectual totalitarianism. And, yes, as you correctly state, the "free press" means to today's media consumers they don't have to pay for a newspaper anymore and all the news they need -- in its abbreviated form -- can be found on Facebook, Twitter (160 characters) and other news feeds. Late University of Chicago philosopher Allan Bloom wrote The Closing of the American Mind in 1987. . .35 years ago. Sadly, we are so much farther down that road now.