What is the value of a free press to a democracy?
About this video
A former foreign correspondent reflects on the value of a free press, comparing the U.S. with countries where people fear being quoted or speaking out. She points to the Washington Post's Watergate reporting on Richard Nixon and the New York Times' Pentagon Papers as examples. She argues that, despite its downsides, a free press lets a democracy course correct.
You'll be able to
- give examples of how a free press has held U.S. leaders to account.
- explain what the speaker means by 'course correction' and why it matters for democracy.
- weigh the downsides of a free press against its benefits.
Key words
- foreign correspondent
- A journalist who reports from other countries.
- libel
- Publishing false statements that damage someone's reputation.
- course correction
- Noticing that a country or its leaders have gone wrong and changing direction.
Transcript
[MUSIC] I've worked a lot in the Middle East and in countries where there is no First Amendment. I'm more and more aware of the virtue and the fortune of living in a country that protects one's freedom of speech. I just came back from China and was dealing with people who are constantly worried about being quoted, let alone speaking out in certain ways. I feel blessed to have been a foreign correspondent, traveled the world, worked in countries that didn't have protected freedoms of speech, but been able to come in and out and soon as I leave those countries, write whatever I want. I think that partly is once you've had that right for so long, it becomes part of your national DNA is one thing. And the other is experience that we saw that it was a free press that brought down a criminal president, the Washington Post and Richard Nixon.
It was a free press that got us through the New York times that the Pentagon papers. So I think now as a society we've had enough experiences where we know the downsides of a free press. People can say a lot of stuff about you that's very hurtful or negative and just one step shy of libel. But we've also as a society learned that having a free press is what's allowed us actually to course correct, and course correction is the most fundamental thing for democracy.
It's hard to do course correction if you don't have a free press to basically call people out when they're off course.
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