“Murder the Media”: Press Freedom, Violence, and the Public Sphere

Authors

Joseph Blocher, Duke Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Chapter of Book

Publication Date

2025

Keywords

press, violence, guns, free speech, disinformation

Abstract

The first goal of this chapter is to argue that the press as an institution is entitled to special solicitude under the First Amendment, not only because it is textually specified in the Constitution or because it serves important roles such as checking public and private power, but because it can contribute to the marketplace of ideas in ways that a healthy democracy needs. In other words, the press as an institution can provide an important link between the First Amendment’s epistemic and democratic values. The chapter’s second goal is to provide a rough and preliminary sketch of the relationship between press freedom, violence, and public discourse. Some elements seem straightforward enough. Violence and harassment obstruct the press’s function, including its traditional role in constituting and shaping public discourse. Distrust, disinformation, violence, and press degradation exist in a mutually reinforcing ecosystem. And even as violence shapes the media, the media shapes the social conditions, understandings, and practice of violence in return. Journalism, albeit in different ways than legal interpretation, “takes place on a field of pain and death,” to repurpose Robert Cover’s famous phrase – not only in describing it but in making it real. This, it should go without saying, is no excuse for violence against media members. The point is, rather, that a healthy press can be a bulwark not only for knowledge and democracy but against the kinds of private and public violence that threaten both.

Citation

Joseph Blocher, “Murder the Media”: Press Freedom, Violence, and the Public Sphere, in The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times 52-63 (RonNell Andersen Jones & Sonja R. West eds., 2025)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License