Law Commons^™

Trustees Of Self-Interest?, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

Unconventional approaches to frequently addressed issues can be particularly illuminating, and John Lofton's discussion of the press and the first amendment takes a decidedly unconventional tack. Rather than focusing on the theme of governmental suppression of speech, Lofton attempts to highlight another angle: the reaction of the press to both political dissent and the official suppression of that dissent from the colonial period to the present day. His purpose, he notes, is "to examine how the American press has performed when confronted with the application of the amendment to practical events."