ipl-logo

Military Censorship In The Usa Pros And Cons

1653 Words7 Pages

The Issue That Threatens U.S. National Security
National security and the First Amendment had clashed many times throughout the years. And part of the First Amendment is the freedom of speech and freedom of press. The press (more specifically print journalism such as newspapers, magazines, news media, etc.) has its own advantages and disadvantages for the United States. Several advantages can be measured how it is utilized. For example, a civilian can go to a coffee shop, buy a cup of coffee, and sit down with a newspaper or a magazine, and start reading recent news. Journalism is keeping civilians informed on what is going on at home or the entire world. The presidency and its occupants uses the advantages of electronic and print media as …show more content…

One of them was a level of trust between soldier-sensor and the reporter (Snow, 2014). Here, the reporter have to believe that the information is censored due to security concerns, and that the military is not hiding evidence of military ineptitude; while the censor have to believe the reporter is “not naively compromising legitimate secrets” (Snow, 2014). It had worked adequately, until the Vietnam conflict. This brings its first drawback to military censorship. Tensions grew between reporters and the government during the Vietnam War, especially when the Tet took offensive at the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in January 1968. The reporters “concluded they had been lied to in reports of progress in the war”, that they had been “reporting those lies”, and that they had been “deceiving their readers and viewers” (Drew & Snow, 2006). Throughout the years, such tension had remained in the journalism-government relationship ever …show more content…

The majority of leak cases, “the leaker is a whistleblower disclosing potential government wrong doing” (Freivogel, 2009). According to Derigan Silver’s article, National Security and the Press, “the Department of Justice is committed to investigating and prosecuting leaks of classified information, and Congress has given the department the statutory tools to do so”, which includes statutes prohibiting “unauthorized disclosure of certain categories of classified information”, disclosure of information relation to national defense, and information relating to communications intelligence activities (Silver, 2008).
To prevent unauthorized information making on the newspaper, the government and the journalists must, a cooperative and responsible relationship. That the press must “routinely ask the government for guidance on the ramifications of the national security information in their possession and frequently have withheld stories or limited their scope in order to soften their impact” (Papandrea, 2011). For example, when President Kennedy requested the New York Times to delay publishing the story about Cuba’s nuclear weapons (Papandrea,

Show More
Related
616 Words | 3 Pages

Another case to futher prove that the CIA which claims to be a protector for the United States’s citizens are using methods to prove innoncence against corruption is the case CIA v. Richard Taus. Richard Taus, a FBI Special Agent and U.S. Army Lt. Colonel who know suffers fallacious sexual assault charges and is spending up to 90 years in prison after exposing criminal activity within the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House during the 1980. One of Richard’s first experiences were while in vitenam when Air America (CIA front operation plane) crashed in a jungle, initally it was employed as a troop transport but was a cover for its illegal drug running operations. When Taus came to the aid of the unharmed Air America pilots and offered

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

By analyzing the text, examples of each guideline being followed can be found. By seeking the truth and reporting it, a reporter can act as a check on the government. The two Washington Post reporters do exactly that. When Bob Woodward is first assigned the

Read More
3125 Words | 13 Pages

The United States armed forces realised the importance of censorship of television, newspapers, radio,

Read More
751 Words | 4 Pages

Embedded journalists are side by side with a military unit, so can be expected to report happenings as seen from inside a soldier’s world. That vantage point however, should not be discounted entirely but seen as enriching our information about what is going on in a conflict. Government limitations media coverage of war, however, causes me real concern. In an editorial in The Washington Post, David Ignatius expressed a similar opinion.

Read More
435 Words | 2 Pages

The opposition suggests that the USA Patriot Act grinds down several elements in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, the freedom of speech and assembly, is violated because it restricts our speech, albeit, indirectly but it is still restricted. People are losing the right to say what they feel and they have to be careful with their words when discussing politics or the government because they can be prosecuted for saying what they think. The Fourth Amendment, the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, is violated because the Patriot Act does not require a probable cause or a warrant to search through someone's data and personal information and with the Patriot Act, the victim does not need to be informed this search is happening.

Read More
1708 Words | 7 Pages

In fact, the vast majority of the information used by reporters such as Woodward and Bernstein was accessed through leaks from federal investigations.10 Ultimately, coverage of Watergate was dependent on government officials who

Read More
1443 Words | 6 Pages

In the United States exists the Whistleblowing Protection Act since 2007.In other hand It is prohibited by Espionage Act any disclosure of confidential information from military bodies, security and

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

In cases where there is a conflict between the two, the need for national security must take precedence. The lessons of classified information are complex and multifaceted, shaped by historical events, technological advancements, and political developments. From the 1953 overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh to the 2013 leaks by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, many examples of classified information being protected and disclosed, with significant

Read More
701 Words | 3 Pages

The step towards transparency provided by the Freedom of Information Act was evaluated in the context of how the government can affect such pursue. Similar approach was adopted with the Supreme Court’s nominations that Senate and president negotiate in hope to influence court’s political inclination. In both analysed cases of presidents invoking the executive privilege, the claim was challenged by one of the congressional committees. While in Obama’s case, the privilege claim was eventually struck down by a federal court and his appointee the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress, no such

Read More
990 Words | 4 Pages

It is crucial that the American public stay ignorant to secret military projects not because the government does not want its people to know, but because it does not want its rivals to know. For example, the SR-71 “Blackbird” was flown in secret for decades with few Americans ever knowing it existed. The American public’s ignorance of this plane allowed America’s technology to stay ahead of the Soviets, and helped America come out on top of overall intelligence levels. The American government would have likely loved to share its new technology; however, the risks outweighed the benefits, and thus the public were kept in the dark. Regardless of being in a way lied to, no one today complains about being left in the dark, as we all know it was for a good cause.

Read More
1045 Words | 5 Pages

According to a document regarding covert operations that were deemed illegal released by the CIA known as Family Jewels (2007), the CIA put wiretaps on two journalists in the name of “national security”. This was because the CIA did not want the two newsmen to reveal the illegal operations they were conducting (Theoharis 60), including but not limited to the manipulation of large media outlets and newspapers such as the New York Times newspaper and Time magazine (Beeton

Read More
1181 Words | 5 Pages

Some were even killed outside of the war because embedded journalist from the U.S and the U.S media. Military censorship was also a big problem during the Iraq War because embedded journalist taking photos of the dead body of the american soldiers. “Significantly, the Times was able to document only five published images of war dead that had been released by embedded journalists. In four of those cases, the paper notes, ‘the photographer was immediately kicked out of his or her embed following publication of such photos’” (World Socialist Web Site).

Read More
376 Words | 2 Pages

The personal liberties of Americans is what gives meaning to being an American. These liberties should be respected and upheld to the greatest efforts possible and should not be abridged by no means less than do process as exemplified by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the American Constitution. However, over time, we have learned about legislation that has been enacted by our government with said efforts to protect the nation. Hence, the Espionage and Sedition Acts, the confinement of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, the Red Scare post-WWII, and the Pentagon Papers of 1971 are all examples that depict some of the behaviors performed by the federal government that would appear to infringe on these liberties.

Read More
384 Words | 2 Pages

During the Vietnam war three students protested in their high school by aiming to wear black wristbands and the school had said they couldn't but they wore the wristbands anyways and got suspended from school. They then took the school to court for violating their 1st amendment, the court decided that because they were expressing freedom of speech through non-disruptive symbolic speech, the school was at fault. Now all schools must allow for freedom of speech and such as long as it isn't disruptive to the learning environment and it was named the “tinker test.” In another situation in 1971, New York Times published classified military documents showing the U.S’s involvement with Vietnam that was initially supposed to be private. A general then

Read More
959 Words | 4 Pages

Keeping valued information, or keeping the outside world from the public is called censorship. Censorship varies on the levels of helpful to harmful. From keeping kids away from bad influences to the government not telling citizens where troops are located, censorship will continue affecting generations to come. Censorship, used by those in power to protect or control a society or group, leads to removing potential trauma to children, threatens anyone who opposes, and takes away rights. Censorship can be used to protect others like when a parent doesn 't let their children watch or read something.

Read More

More about Military Censorship In The Usa Pros And Cons

Related Topics

Open Document