Overview

"War and Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Power is a groundbreaking and provocative study of one of the most perplexing civil liberties issues in American history: What authority does or should the government have to control press coverage and commentary in wartime? First Amendment scholar Jeffery A. Smith shows convincingly that no such extraordinary power exists under the Constitution, and that officials have had to rely on claiming the existence of an autocratic ""higher law"" of survival. Smith carefully surveys the development of statutory restrictions and military regulations for the news media from the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 through the Gulf War of 1991. He concludes that the armed forces can justify refusal to divulge a narrow range of defense secrets, but that imposing other restrictions is unwise, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. In any event, as electronic communication becomes almost impossible to constrain, soldiers and journalists must learn how to respect each other's obligations in a democratic system."

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9780195099461

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Reviews

[Smith] has put together an informed, detailed, and delightful analysis of the gradual erosion of a free press....Smith's strength in this volume is his relentless use of historical example to demonstrate a pervasive erosion of constitutional principle....[Smith] has amassed a powerful argument that concessions to national security lead to a withering of freedom and the emergence of an autocratic secretive' government. -- The Law and Politics Book Review<br> Praise for Jeffery A. Smith's Previous Books<br> FRANKLIN AND BACHE<br> Envisioning the Enlightened Republic<br> (OUP, 1990)<br> [Smith is] a thoughtful and compelling writer....He provides insights into both men not found elsewhere. He makes a major contribution in portraying the Jeffersonian journalism of the Federalist period as more than mere namecalling. --Journalism Quarterly<br> PRINTERS AND PRESS FREEDOM<br> The Ideology of Early American Journalism<br> (OUP, 1988)<br> A splendidly researched and persuasively argued historical review of the original intention of the First Amendment's promise of press freedom. --The New York Times Book Review<br> This ambitious, audacious effort rethinks large chunks of American and English history in relation to eighteenth-century American newspapering and pamphleteering and presents the origins of First Amendment theory in a new light. --Journalism Quarterly<br>

[Smith] has put together an informed, detailed, and delightful analysis of the gradual erosion of a free press....Smith's strength in this volume is his relentless use of historical example to demonstrate a pervasive erosion of constitutional principle....[Smith] has amassed a powerful argument that concessions to national security lead to a withering of freedom and the emergence of an autocratic secretive' government. -- The Law and Politics Book Review Praise for Jeffery A. Smith's Previous Books FRANKLIN AND BACHE Envisioning the Enlightened Republic (OUP, 1990) [Smith is] a thoughtful and compelling writer....He provides insights into both men not found elsewhere. He makes a major contribution in portraying the Jeffersonian journalism of the Federalist period as more than mere namecalling. --Journalism Quarterly PRINTERS AND PRESS FREEDOM The Ideology of Early American Journalism (OUP, 1988) A splendidly researched and persuasively argued historical review of the original intention of the First Amendment's promise of press freedom. --The New York Times Book Review This ambitious, audacious effort rethinks large chunks of American and English history in relation to eighteenth-century American newspapering and pamphleteering and presents the origins of First Amendment theory in a new light. --Journalism Quarterly Smith, a leading scholar of the colonial press and law, uses the legal precedent and the founders' intentions as a backdrop to his thoroughly researched and eloquently argued polemic on the excesses of censorship during times of war. --American Historical Review, December 2000 ...Smith...has given us a significant piece of research....the book is worth using in courses that examine the issues of press and givernment in wartime. --Journalism and Mass Communication Educator War and Press Freedom, a meticulously researched book, is a significant addition to the literature on press freedom. Its comprehensive, in-depth analysis touches on nearly all of the controversies undergirding the proper balancing of the values of press freedom with the government's interest in meeting wartime security needs....a valuable text for American press history...the book will be particularly useful to those who have a sustained interest in the practical meaning of press freedom in the United States. --Journalism History [Smith] makes his arguments crisply and in depth, especially in his centerpiece chapter on the bureaucratization of censorship, covering this past century's wars. --Columbia Journalism Review Smith's history of the conflict between secrecy and openness, War and Press Freedom, is both diagnostic and prescriptive....the book is excellent and should be a part of any history seminar on wartime American journalism. --Newspaper Research Journal ...the most exhaustive study to date of the wartime clash between openness and secrecy...this book will be a necessity for a long time...it offers value for everyone. --The Journal of American History Written from a journalistic perspective, this detailed history offers an illuminating, insightful, readable, and critical evaluation of the struggle for press freedom during wartime. Smith shows impeccable scholarship....Highly recommended for high school, public, college, and university libraries. --Choice [Smith] has put together an informed, detailed, and delightful analysis of the gradual erosion of a free press....Smith's strength in this volume is his relentless use of historical example to demonstrate a pervasive erosion of constitutional principle....[Smith] has amassed a powerful argument that concessions to national security lead to a withering of freedom and the emergence of an autocratic secretive' government. -- The Law and Politics Book Review Praise for Jeffery A. Smith's Previous Books FRANKLIN AND BACHE Envisioning the Enlightened Republic (OUP, 1990) [Smith is] a thoughtful and compelling writer....He provides insights into both men not found elsewhere. He makes a major contribution in portraying the Jeffersonian journalism of the Federalist period as more than mere namecalling. --Journalism Quarterly PRINTERS AND PRESS FREEDOM The Ideology of Early American Journalism (OUP, 1988) A splendidly researched and persuasively argued historical review of the original intention of the First Amendment's promise of press freedom. --The New York Times Book Review This ambitious, audacious effort rethinks large chunks of American and English history in relation to eighteenth-century American newspapering and pamphleteering and presents the origins of First Amendment theory in a new light. --Journalism Quarterly [An] impressive study of press censorship... [A] thoroughly researched and eloquently argued polemic on the excesses of censorship during times of war. A readble book that will find its way into undergraduate and graduate history, law and press courses. Smith's study should also be read and its footnotes mined by scholars of the fields it touches... We realize the importance of Smith's impressive book and its forcefully argued conclusion: that the resolve in the Founders' writing about press freedom has been substantially and cumulatively weakened by successive overreactions to perceived wartime threats. --American Historical Review

Author Information

Jeffery A. Smith is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Iowa.

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