First Amendment News

Photographer Linda Tirado is suing the Minneapolis police for blinding her in one eye with rubber bullets during the Black Lives Matter protests after the killing of George Floyd in June of 2020. If Tirado prevails in federal court, it would establish a precedent to help journalists suffering police violence. (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, September 3, 2021, by Ari Paul) A seventh grade North Carolina student lost a First Amendment case to contest her

While ex-President Donald Trump poses the greatest threat to national news reporting, ex-President Barack Obama also acted to force reporters to reveal their sources. It is time, writes Rob Miraldi, USA TODAY, September 9, 2021, for Congress to enact a federal shield law. Earlier attempts to enact such a law were stymied by the difficulty of defining a reporter in the internet era, but, suggests Miraldi, a broad, simple definition works best, “…if you are

A story reported by a local news channel in Oklahoma that victims of overdoses of an anti-parasite drug overwhelmed a rural hospital swept into the national media but turned out to be bogus. The Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and the New York Daily News were among those running the story about the drug ivermectin, promoted as a Covid-19 treatment by those opposing vaccines. Reason, September 6, 2021, by Robby Soave) Conn Carroll of the Washington Examiner,

Pew Research Center found that Republican trust in national news organizations fell substantially since 2016. Thirty-five percent of Republicans say they trust national news outlets compared to 70 percent in 2016. (Axios, August 31, 2021, by Sara Fischer) The survey shows how the country has polarized recently. In answer to the question of whether they have “a lot” or “some” trust in national news outlets, 83 percent of liberal Democrats responded affirmatively compared to 30