Post #7

 Post #7

The Progressive Era

    The Progressive Era, Marketplace of Ideas and the Modern First Amendment was the final episode of our Media Law history tour. It closed a chapter that has shown how fragile free expression can be, especially when it runs up against powerful institutions. World War I stoked a fire of patriotic fervor in the United States during the Progressive Era but not everyone was on message. Antiwar critics, driven by conscience and principle, spoke out against American policy. What did the government do? They cracked down on them. Dozens of Americans were imprisoned simply because they were war critics. In theory, the First Amendment was meant to protect them. But in practice, they were disregarded or better yet, turned into weapons against them.

    So now let's move to today. America is militarily engaged all around the globe drone strikes, clandestine operations, troop deployment. And you scarcely ever get a critical examination of this on the mass media. Browsing the big news outlets, you'll have bipartisan support for defense budgets, military interventionism, and stories that portray war as unavoidable or imperative. Where are the doubters?

    It seems they're still here just not where everybody can see them. Web pages such as Antiwar.com and The American Conservative are rife with trenchant antiwar commentary, piercing denunciations of American foreign policy, and voices of prudence against war without end. These sites, however, are far from household names. Why? Why do we have to go digging so deep just to be able to hear voices critical of the war consensus?

    It's a disturbing trend. During WWI, protesters were jailed. Today, they're simply ignored. Their audiences are small, their niches restricted, and their messages relegated unobtrusively to the background. In theory, they're entitled to speak. But in a media culture dominated by corporate interests, government control, and algorithmic click-ratings, that right can become empty if nobody is listening.

    The First Amendment is not paper and ink it's a living idea that has to be fought for day to day. Real free speech is not just the right to speak, and it's being heard. And today the citizens who object to war are still barely managing to be heard at all.