USA! USA! USA! We’re Number 1! Oh, Excuse Me 46

The United States of America values the freedom of the press so much that it made those freedoms part of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Not the second or third amendment, but the very first one. How could the United States fall a whopping thirteen places to be number 46 in something they pretty much invented? Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden helped, but there is also the Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press phone records.

For those of you who need help remembering the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, here is number one –

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.

McCarthyism in the News

In a recent class we talked about “McCarthyism” and how it relates to the media in general and to the news cycle specifically. Every year I think of deleting it from my syllabus. Whenever I include a topic in my class I ask myself, “How relevant can this be to students today? Then I will undoubtedly encounter the topic within the next week as I scan the media. McCarthy was no different, as Congress moved to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of congress. Many in the media compared Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) probe of the Internal Revenue Service to the tactics used by Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.) and his Senate Committee on Government Operations.

For extra credit I watched the movie Chaplin, where one of Hollywood’s greatest creative geniuses is barred from returning to the United States for his perceived political views.