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Liberal Visions Of The Freedom Of The Press, Michael Gerhardt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Liberals have long regarded the First Amendment's freedom of the press guarantee as their special plaything.' For most of this century, liberals have dominated the scholarship and the doctrinal debate on the freedom of the press. They have often urged the federal courts to establish the press as "a fourth institution outside the Government as an additional check on the three official branches." Liberal judges have ensured virtual autonomy for the print media through the cumulative effect of their rulings to immunize the press from damages for the publication of falsehoods about public figures unless the publication was done knowingly, …