[Congressman Billybob]

I used the phrase "free press" the same way as the Framers, and as the authors of the original Massachusetts Charter did. It meant then, and it means today, all of the means of communication, collectively.

As for the broadcast media (which today also includes the Internet), the FCC and other government agencies are moving toward the view that they are entitled to the same level of freedom and protection as the ink-on-paper press has enjoyed since 1789. I have long supported that effort, since all parts of the press are equally useful in helping Americans be informed about current events.

Using your words, we have very limited censorship of electronic media today. In my view, there should be none, as there is none of the print media.

John / Billybob

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I used the phrase "free press" the same way as the Framers, and as the authors of the original Massachusetts Charter did. It meant then, and it means today, all of the means of communication, collectively.

. . . not counting radio transmission by someone who is not given a special license by the government, of course . . .

As for the broadcast media (which today also includes the Internet), the FCC and other government agencies are moving toward the view that they are entitled to the same level of freedom and protection as the ink-on-paper press has enjoyed since 1789. I have long supported that effort, since all parts of the press are equally useful in helping Americans be informed about current events.

Do you successfully defend people who set up radio transmitters without a license?

Using your words, we have very limited censorship of electronic media today. In my view, there should be none, as there is none of the print media.

Congressman, you and I don't see eye to eye at all on this. The government will arrest me if I try to compete on even terms with WCBS radio, without getting a scarce license from the government. Do you mean to say that you can read the First Amendment and derive from it the right of the government to limit the price of newsprint and ink "to improve communication" - thereby systematically inducing shortages, and giving the government excuse to ration newsprint according to who the government decides "needs" it?

Well, that is essentially the effect of federal licensing of radio transmission. The government nationalized the transmission of radio waves, and doled out licenses at its own convenience and mostly does not give licenses at its own convenience. And it has the gall to promote the intrusion of its licensees holders of titles of nobility into journalism politics. Broadcasting "the news" "objectively" is supposedly a "public service."

Journalism is politics. And it always will be politics - just as much in the future as it was in the past, when Hamilton and Jefferson waged their partisan battles through their own sponsored newspapers.