Media Law Blog

  A key post of at least 400 words . Be sure to think about hallmarks of a good blog post — links to sources, visuals, point of view. Be expressive and share your thoughts ! Make this one special!     Election day is right around the corner. People are raising their voices to be heard. Our nation is making a choice that will have an impact for the next decade. Could Trump win and make America Great Again? Will Biden remain the moderate or will the Left take control of every branch of government? One thing is for sure, our nation is changing around us and it's become difficult to keep track of what is political and what isn't. In this Election time it's important to acknowledge how important it is to Participate in Self Government. As citizens it's our duty to vote. Personally, I've jumped through half a dozen hoops to make sure my mail-in-ballot is going to make it to me. The first ballot never did because of the changes to our mail in system.     There are some who

  Fast forward to today, when the United States government is waging military operations all over the globe. Explore this website:  ANTIWAR.COM   Also explore this one: American Conservative   Notice how the writers on these sites are all very strong antiwar voices that you NEVER seem to hear in the mainstream news. I wonder why that is, don't you? You've probably never even heard of these websites. I wonder why that is? Why do you think you have to seek out obscure websites in order to hear strong antiwar voices?              Over the last century, the news has solidified itself as exactly that, the News. They are the ones who control which stories are seen across the nation, and they're the gatekeepers of the public opinion or... they were. Public opinion has begun to sway against the media and people begin looking beyond them for their facts and sources. Local news is the first stop but going to the fringes, you find sites like Antiwar and American Conservative.

Think about the Six Clauses, or Six Freedoms, of the First Amendment and use the six freedoms as lenses as you read news items — any current news items — about the Black Lives Matter protests.  Think about all the things we've learned already in this class: The Six Freedoms, the Speech/Action Dichotomy, the Bedrock Principles, which state that the F.A. is not absolute and that F.A. protection is not a shield against Laws of General Applicability.  Can you relate any of those ideas to the news stories that you find?   (Try using Google News.)          Breaking down "Federal Agents Tapped Protester's Phones in Portland," a recent story about the invasion of citizen privacy. It isn't the only story of Federal Agents abusing their power during the Portland protests and the riots that broke out after. This article also mentions the unmarked officers who abducted random protesters or citizens off the street. Reading about the situation there is almost surreal in

Write a bout the history and workings of the U.S. Supreme Court using this 20-minute video as a jumping off point —  Part I  and  Part II .  — OR—  Read this overview about the Supreme Court created by the History Channel:  SCOTUS History            The Judaical Branch of our Government is always meant to be a neutral party between the Executive and the Legislative Branches. Should the Judicial Branch develop a clear bias then that will become reflected in the rest of our nation. The elements of our constitution are always up for interpretation which means any political leaning can bend the constitution to their beliefs. This week, we reached a tipping point, as Justice Ginsburg has passed and Trump is appointing his third Justice. Four years ago, the appointing of a Justice was delayed due to it being an election year, now in the other hands, this no longer holds true.     Following our election in November depending on how the appointment goes, we are likely to see a few different