November/December 1991 | Contents

November/December 1991

Special Section: Celebrating the First Amendment

Pleading the First
A historian of the press argues that the people are not the enemy
by James Boylan

The Most Serious Threat Is...

• Abuse of Privilege
  Suzanne Garment
• Lying
  Benjamin C. Bradlee
• Constitutional Illiteracy
  Scott Armstrong
• The Cloak of Privacy
  Jane E. Kirtley
• The JOA Scam
  Stephen R. Barnett
• The Shush Reflex
  Molly Ivins
• Clutter
  Ronald K.L. Collins
• Megamedia
  Jesse Jackson
• Self Censorship
  Andrei Codrescu
• The FCC
  Jeff Chester
• The Secrecy Obsession
  Angus Mackenzie
• The Spread of Rust
  James Fitzpatrick
• Warrior Lawyers
  Barbara Dill
• Sheer Gutlessness
  Ben H. Bagdikian

In at the Birth of a New Constitution
An American lawyer in Prague gets a glimpse into what must have gone on in Philadelphia two hundred years ago
by Martin Garbus

A Funny Thing Is Happening to TV's Public Forum
PBS funding comes with strings attached. Could that be why the "safely splendid" is driving out bolder fare?
by Pat Aufderheide

Stop Pulling Punches with Polls
Isn't it time the news media faced up to their role in the election process?
by Philip Meyer

Amendment Envy
A report on the mother country's unfree press
by Piers Brendon

Regulate the Media,
Liberate the Message
Original intent in the electronic age
by Lawrence K. Grossman

Chronicle

• New Orleans: when a free press gets expensive
• Turkey: A Kurdish paper on the edge
• Maryland: opening closed doos, further restricting the opportunities for recent graduates.
• South Africa: Who will control the airwaves?
• Greece: censorship by anti-terrorism
• Guatemala: censorship by terrorism
• Missouri: Computer networks and free speech
• U.S.S.R.: Interfax
• Australia: suing the press for fun and profit
• Boston: a pornography puzzle for the press

Capital Letter
Making Ho-hum Sing!
by William Boot

On the Job
The Octopus File
by Phil Linsalata

Books

• Damon Runyon
  by Jimmy Breslin
  reviewed by Robert Lipsyte
• Make No Law:
  The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment
  by Anthony Lewis
  reviewed by Alex Kozinski
• Silent Coup:
  The Removal of a President
  by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin
  reviewed by Steve Weinberg

letters
Darts and Laurels
Short Takes

• The Fashion Cycle, by Irene Daria
• The Search for God at Harvard, by Ari L. Goldman
• Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States V. Oliver North

The Lower Case