In case you didn't know, May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. To that end, the Pew Research Center has released the results of a survey about the importance of a free press in the United States of America.
For starters, the survey reports that 73% of adults in the U.S. believe that a free press, as described in the First Amendment, is "extremely or very important to the well-being of society." Eighteen percent thought it was somewhat important, and 8% said it was of little or no importance.
Not surprisingly, people in the U.S. are a little jaded about who influences what news they see, hear, and read. Eighty-four percent of those polled maintained that the news is influenced by "corporations and financial interests." Eighty-three percent said that the government and political interests hold sway over the news. When people were asked if financial and corporate interests or government/political interests had a great deal of influence over the news, the numbers were 51% and 49%, respectively.
The survey reported that 41% of Americans were "extremely or very concerned" about restrictions on the press. Twenty-nine percent are somewhat concerned, and even 57% of journalists said they were "very concerned" about the possibility of constraints on a free press.
Here is where things get a trifle uncomfortable:
About half of U.S. adults (51%) say that the publication of false information should always be prevented, even if it means press freedom could be limited. Meanwhile, 46% of Americans say press freedom should always be protected, even if it means false information could be published.
Fifty-one percent is not an insignificant number.
When you work for PJ Media or a similar publication, you sift through mounds of news stories, press releases, and social media posts. The 24-hour news cycle has morphed into a 60-second news cycle. It comes at you in massive doses at a mile a minute. There are plenty of times when a particular story looks like it might have some serious legs until you do a bit of research. Clickbait has replaced headlines, and a "breaking story" may require a second or third look.
When I was a small-town reporter, that was a regular issue. At least once a week, someone would sidle up to me with a juicy bit of information or a "scoop." More often than not, upon further review, the "scoop" turned out to be the current incarnation of the previous day's cattle feed.
Two things stand out here. One, who will decide what is fake news and what is legitimate information? I think we all know who that will be. How many times have conservatives had to defend and explain Trump's statements about the Charlottesville protests? How many times have we seen a Biden rally or speech with a tight shot of the president? And how many times have we seen a wide-angle view of the same event revealing that the attendance was slightly higher than that of a canasta tournament at The Villages? Who the arbiters are or will be when it comes to curating information is a foregone conclusion.
Two, how lazy are we? The founding fathers left us with a Constitution and a federalist model of government that was not designed for apathetic people. There was an assumption that the people who would live in a republic such as ours would be engaged not just in the machinations of government but in everyday life.
In theory, Americans should be able to separate the wheat from the chaff before forming opinions about current events, and they can. But how many Americans want to? What happens if enough Americans decide that they want to turn on the screen and turn off their brains for a dose of carefully crafted "truth" without taking it upon themselves to go in search of that truth on their own? We end up going down yet another road that Benjamin Franklin was likely thinking about when he was asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had given the people: "A republic if you can keep it."
At PJ Media, one of the reasons we do what we do is to empower you to search for the truth and to find your voice. We don’t just want to inform and entertain you; we want to inspire you to be a participant in the republic. Unfortunately, that is getting harder and harder to do, and the pressure on the free press is only going to get stronger.
That’s where you come in. We count on our VIP members to keep things running around here. VIP members help fuel this little corner of the free press. What do you get for your money? Besides helping us keep the lights on, you get access to our VIP articles, a chance to comment, interact with our writers, and enjoy our podcasts. So we’re asking you to think it over. Use promo code SAVEAMERICA for a 50% discount and join our team today.
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