Tuesday, February 01, 2005

A related matter

On Democracy Now this a.m., they reported about a survey of high school students being questioned about the media. One third, yes that's right, one third, of all students believed that the American press has too much freedom. And one third, I'm guessing the same people, felt that reports should get the permission of the government before writing stories that involve government agencies or figures.

Apparently, they aren't doing a great job teaching the First Amendment in high school.

1 comment:

writinginAK said...

I read about that in the paper this morning ... more scary statistics:
--75 percent of 112,000 students surveyed said it is illegal to burn the American flag as a means of political protest.
--nearly half believe the government can censor the Internet
--17 percent bewlieve that the public is prohibited from expressing unpopular opinions

(this was a Cox News Service story written by Rebecca Carr)

Very, very scary.The former journalist in me wonders whether there's a connection to the consolidation of media, with more and more media owned by just a few (very wealthy and powerful) folks. Sure gives the impression that it isn't ok to dissent, or that you're the lunatic fringe if you do.

Sigh.