Rise of a Free Press 1474-1830

Harold Innis, EMPIRE AND COMMUNICATION

• media creates empire, then serves empire

Lawrence Levy, LEGACY OF SUPPRESSION

• as political power weakens, media power rises

The Age of Controls

Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain 1474-1504

• Inquisition as political instrument -Torquemada
• 1502 prohibition on publication without permission
  • the first use of "prior restraint"
• 1493 Santangel letter promotes Columbus
• variation of Santangel woodcut by pilot-major Amerigo Vespucci
• 1502 Mundus Novus of Vespucci
• 1502 Cantino map based on Vespucci

Catholic counter-Reformation after 1517

• Univ. of Alcala founded by Cardinal Cisneros to emphasize humanism
• Polyglot Bible 1502-1517 in 3 languages
• German princes ordered to control Lutheran press
• 1542 Holy Office of 6 cardinals established in Rome
  • and Copernicus published De Revolutionibus
• 1564 Papal Index of Prohibited Books started
• 1632 trial of Galileo (verdict reversed Oct. 1992)

Tudor power in England 1485-1603

• 1529 list of prohibited books; 1530 licensing
• 1557 Stationer's Company use search warrants
• 1566 Star Chamber suppresses all dissent

Rise of the Newspaper 1609-1650

• regular and frequent, consistent format, variety of stories
• 1609 by Johan Carolus in Strasbourg
• 1618 coranto in Amsterdam
• 1622 "Continuation of the Weekly News" by T. Gainsford in Brit.
• 1631 "Gazette de France" in Paris
• 1650 "Incoming News" in Leipzig was 1st daily

Stuart restoration in 1660 after civil war

• Surveyor of Press; 1662 Licensing Act
• 1665 official "London Gazette" on London's Fleet St.
  • "published by authority"
• in America, official Cambridge Press since 1638
  • 1st book in North America - Bay Psalm Book by S. Day 1640
  • Mathers published 621 works

Controls Begin to Loosen

1688 - Glorious Revolution - rise of Parliament

• Whigs &Tories each use & sponsor own press
• Court & Country ideologies debated in coffeehouses

1690 - Benj. Harris's "Publick Occurrences" in Boston

• anti-Catholic Whig in London - f. coffeehouse
• imprisoned 1679 in London for seditious libel - fled to America
• but only 1 issue - no license

1694 - Licensing Act ended

1704 - John Campbell's "Boston Newsletter"

• only 300 circulation, but for 72 years

1712 - Tory newspaper tax, limit reporting of Commons

1720 - "Cato's Letters" expressed Whig Country politics of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon agaisnt the standing army of the King; were published in the "London Journal"

• as central authority weakens, media power increases

Rise of Free Press in America

1721 - Mass. ended licensing - rise of Assembly over royal Gov.

• 1721 - James Franklin's "New England Courant"
• 1st unlicensed newspaper - until 1723
• Ben's Silas Dogood letters

1733 - John Zenger's N.Y. "Weekly Journal"

• Zenger was pro-Justice Lewis Morris vs. Gov. Wm. Cosby and young James DeLancy who were supported by rival newspaper "N.Y. Gazette" of Wm. Bradford
• libel trial 1735 - Zenger's lawyer Andrew Hamilton asked jury to decide true or false
• jury found Zenger innocent - Brit. did nothing, backed down in face of public opinion expressed by the press

1765 - Stamp Act

• to suppress newspaper dissent as well as tax colonies
• Ben Franklin 1766 cartoon for Brit Parliament
• rise of pamphlet, Sons of Liberty

1770 - Boston "Massacre"

• Paul Revere broadside

1776 - Declaration of Independence

• "Liberty of speech belonged solely to those who spoke the speech of liberty." (Arthur Schlesinger)

1782 - Junius Wilkes of Phil. "Independent Gazeteer"

• 1st to oppose seditious libel - public right to know

First Amendment

• Sept. 17, 1787 - Constitution signed in Philadelphia by 39 delegates
• Benj. Russell's "Mass. Sentinel" depicted 11 pillars, 9 required for ratification.
• June 21, 1788 - New Hampshire was the 9th state to ratif .
• Apr. 30, 1789 - George Washington inaugurated at Federal Hall in NY.
• Madison's original 17 amendments proposed Aug. 24, 1789.
• Sept. 9, 1789 - Congress voted 12 amendments be sent to the states for ratification.
• The Bill of Rights came from the state ratification debates in 1788, and from the amendments proposed by New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina in 1788, and from the proposals of James Madison in 1789. The final version of ten amendments was submitted by Congress to the states Sept. 25, 1789, and ratified by three-fourths of the states Dec. 15, 1791. The Bill of Rights started with the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
• only prior restraint - not libel, censorship, propaganda, sedition, obscenity, vulgarity, privacy, access, fairness
• comment on libel by Joy Brunetti
• links on the First Amendment

"Dark Ages" of the partisan press

• John Fenno's "Gazette" - pro- Federalist party
  
• Philip Frenneau's "National Gazette" - pro- Republican
  
• Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798
  

Government control declined

• Jefferson repealed sedition law 1801
  
• 1804 libel trial of Harry Croswell, editor of high-Federalist "N.Y. Wasp"
  
• N.Y.law allowed truth as a defense 1805: "if published with good motives & for justifiable ends" - resulted in more libel suits
  
• 1830 nationalizing power of the penny press
  

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