Our Young Blackshirts
Posted by Paul Musgrave on 31 January 2005 | 13 responses
USA Today reports that large numbers of American high school students favor curtailing press freedoms. Only 51% of students surveyed, for instance, believed the media should be able to print its stories without censorship; 36% believe the government should approve stories before they run. A third of those asked say the press has too much freedom. More details here.
If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a little knowledge about liberty is a threat to the nation.
13 Responses to “Our Young Blackshirts”
I’ve encountered a lot of people who say, “The Constitution’s nice and all, but if a policeman sees someone commit a murder, then we don’t need a trial.”
I even heard someone say, “I believe in the presumption of innocence for someone who didn’t do anything wrong, but if they broke the law, they should have to prove their innocence at trial.”
In enjoyed the funny swings in exactly what the right to free expression means, too. Principals, teachers and students as separate groups, were asked whether they agreed with the following statements:
“Newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.”
Students: 51%
Teachers: 80%
Principals: 80%
“Musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics which others may find offensive.”
Students: 70%
Teachers: 58%
Principals: 43%
“Students should be allowed to report controversial issues in their student newspapers without the approval of school authorities.”
Students: 58%
Teachers: 39%
Principals: 25%
I especially love how principals are actually more repressive of music lyrics than the supposedly ignorant kids are of newspapers!
I think the principals want to censor ODB, not Bob Dylan.
These are the kind of things that make me want to become a teacher of civics and history. Well, that and the pay and the glamour.
A truly terrifying trend in America
We can debate the merits of the quality of the media’s reportings, and even its relevance, but according to In the Agora, now many students don’t feel that the media should have that much freedom. This begs the question, just…
You should have heard what some of my students thought about the Cobb County GA warning label about evolution when we were discussing the Scopes Trial. A couple of them said that all of their textbooks should contain only material that was “American” and “right by God.” I was a little shocked, but not too much. I went on to talk about local control of curriculum, etc.
Somehow, I doubt that 49% of students would have agreed with “Newspapers should have to get government approval of stories before publishing them.” The problem with such general statements is it’s hard to know what the responders had in mind when they answered.
Something is just not right about these first amendment questions
Update to this post in response to this post at In the Agora. There is something really fishy about this CNN article. Take a look at these particular areas that are highlighted in typical media fashion to make us go…
Well, that’s because 49% of students didn’t say that; 36% did. “The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get “government approval” of stories before publishing.”
Curious about what is meant by “liberty” that you would conclude about it what you did. It would seem to me that a proper conception of Liberty would be very useful and ought to be widespread.
Are you really confused? “a little knowledge about liberty,” in the context of a post demonstrating that people have only a little knowledge about liberty, has a crystal-clear meaning.
Well, that’s because 49% of students didn’t say that; 36% did.
Oops. I missed that because I was looking for the actual wording of the questions on the survey. And I couldn’t find that question anywhere.
My point is that when people (especially high school students) agree that “the press has too much freedom,” they might be thinking of paparazzi-type behavior. And when they agree that “the government should approve stories,” they might very well be thinking about reporters embedded with military units.
So while I do find this report disturbing, I’m also a little skeptical.
Local control over curriculum? The Cobb County school board, after they had recieved more than 2,300 complaints from parents about a specific science textbook, put a sticker on those books. This is what the sticker said, in toto, “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” What was the business of a federal judge here?