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The Constitutional Convention -- December, 1887

Redaction is an unusual word in that it describes the intentional removal, or masking of information, or news someone doesn’t want you to know. Redaction of what’s most important in favor of what’s most profitable is censorship, plain and simple. Fake news, junk-news and similar fare is not what has collapsed our economy — but it is why we Americans are largely ignorant about what our governments are doing for us, or to us, or failing to do at all.

In 1982, Congress deregulated this nation’s broadcasters. AM, FM, television, cable, and satellite aggregators were freed of essentially all programming and ownership constraints so that they might become more profitable. Absent limits on concentration and regulatory oversight, big money media empires greedily bought up America’s family owned radio and television stations. Thus ended the era of creativity, responsibility and public service in American broadcasting.

Fourth Estate Born Of Mistrust Of Government

Philadelphia – By the time the Constitutional Convention framed this nation’s governmental foundation, widespread passions for freedom from governmental oppression had wrought a new nation. The new government established by ratification of the document adopted by the Constitutional Convention was neither beloved, nor trusted — not even by those who created it. Governments, the framers of  the United States Constitution wanted us to know, are inherently dangerous and easily corrupted.

The proposed constitution provided checks and balances within the new government by dividing power between three independent branches: the executive, judicial and congress. Not everyone was satisfied by merely organizing the government when the greater risk was leaving the relationship between that government and sovereign citizens undefined. In nearly every state there were immense concerns about how this new government could be held accountable to the citizens over which it would have domain. For many the concerns were protecting the rights of citizens, not the prerogatives of government.

The outcome of the public debate produced ten amendments to the constitution, the first of which created specific rights including free speech, and by implication, a free press protection that guaranteed that all citizens, and journalists, the right to demand information from, and the freedom to disseminate what was known about the new government. The first ten amendments were adopted as a group, now known as The Bill Of Rights, just before Christmas in 1791.

Once adopted, the First Amendment enabled what some consider The House Of The Fourth Estate — an independent press with the rights and privileges necessary to report on the actions of government such that sovereign citizens would know what mattered most to them so that their role in electing their governors would be based on responsible and credible information.

The only media existing in constitutional times were materials printed using ink presses. Whether newspapers, magazines, or what were called hand bills, protecting the freedom of the press meant preserving the rights of journalists. Today all free speech is still protected, whether it be journalistic, political, personal or commercial.

Since the adoption of the constitution, the free press has expanded in terms of media, immediacy and reach. Since the origins of telecommunications, the free press has disseminated news in more than print media. First by telegraph, then radio, television, satellite and today’s worldwide internet have all added new ways of publishing news and information.

Entitlement Vs. Public Service

Today, some 232 years later, the American nation revels in its freedoms and opportunities. Compared to the state of the nation 25 years ago, our freedoms and opportunities are less certain, perhaps in danger. What happened in 1983 was legislation aimed at making broadcasting more profitable, free of governmental controls, elimination of standards and long-standing requirements to serve in the public interest. Nobody said so, and perhaps may not have know that one of the unintended consequences would turn broadcast journalism from a public service into a profit center.

Today we are a flaccid nation, a people imbued with a sense of entitlement, a society that values things and property more than the freedoms we take for granted, or the sharing of burden which made us a leader among nations. In our thirst for more for ourselves we have effectively redacted time honored concepts of  responsibility, shared burden, and commitment to one another from the Constitution. That we have not knowingly done this to ourselves, that we did not vote to abrogate our birthright as descendants of the men who gathered here in Philadelphia, does not matter. We have done what we have done.

And now our day of reckoning is at hand.