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Symposium: Truth, Trust And The First Amendment In The Digital Age: Foreword: Whither The Fourth Estate?, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
Symposium: Truth, Trust And The First Amendment In The Digital Age: Foreword: Whither The Fourth Estate?, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
UF Law Faculty Publications
As a professor of Media Law, I have devoted my career over the past quarter of a century to the idea that the press plays a special role in our democracy. That role is largely encapsulated by the concept of the press as Fourth Estate – an unofficial branch of government in our scheme of separation of powers that checks the power of the three official branches. In our constitutional scheme, the press is the watchdog that informs us what the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government are up to and continually replenishes the stock of news – real …
Protecting The Public From Itself: Paternalism And Irony In Defining Newsworthiness, Clay Calvert
Protecting The Public From Itself: Paternalism And Irony In Defining Newsworthiness, Clay Calvert
UF Law Faculty Publications
In a speech more than 150 years ago, author and British politician Benjamin Disraeli' proclaimed it "much easier to be critical than to be correct." Viewed in that sagacious light, this article surely traverses the low road, not the high one. It offers, in discussion-sparking spirit, a few slight criticisms of Professor Amy Gajda's conclusions and suggestions in her timely, meticulously researched and example-laden book, The First Amendment Bubble: How Privacy and Paparazzi Threaten a Free Press.
Specifically, Part I of this Article encapsulates the problems identified by Professor Gajda for journalism today - and, more broadly, troubles for a …
Not A Free Press Court?, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
Not A Free Press Court?, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
UF Law Faculty Publications
The last decade has been tumultuous for print and broadcast media. Daily newspaper circulation continues to fall precipitously, magazines struggle to survive, and network television audiences keep shrinking. In the meanwhile, cable news is prospering, mobile devices are contributing to increased news consumption, and many new media outlets appear to be thriving. Despite the dynamism in the media industry, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has taken up relatively few First Amendment cases directly involving the media. The Court has addressed a number of important free speech cases since 2005, but thus far the only Roberts Court decisions …
Prying, Spying, And Lying: Intrusive Newsgathering And What The Law Should Do About It, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
Prying, Spying, And Lying: Intrusive Newsgathering And What The Law Should Do About It, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky
UF Law Faculty Publications
The media’s use of intrusive newsgathering techniques poses an increasing threat to individual privacy. Courts currently resolve the overwhelming majority of conflicts in favor of the media. This is not because the First Amendment bars the imposition of tort liability on the media for its newsgathering practices. It does not. Rather, tort law has failed to seize the opportunity to create meaningful privacy protection. Most torts that affect newsgathering protect privacy only incidentally, and the tort of intrusion, which addresses newsgathering more directly, has been interpreted so narrowly that it provides little or no protection from the most common types …