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, 1789 - Constitution signed
• Benj. Russell's "Mass. Sentinel" depicted 11 pillars
• Madison's original 17 amendments proposed Aug. 24, 1789
• states demanded Bill of Rights - added 1791, starting 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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