#first amendment center

Hum a Little Diddy

“Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once.” ― Robert Browning

  The local university was hosting Freedom Sings, a project of the First Amendment Center. Their description says, “American history meets rock ‘n roll to put together a remarkable story…about how guitars and drums changed the path of history because they were accompanied by the kind of lyrics that make a difference.” A…

Saving the European Enlightenment

The European Enlightenment, which for the sake of convenience I take to extend from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 (or very arguably the Peace of Augsburg in 1555) down to the advent of post-modernist ideology sometime in the middle 1960s, remains the basis of the current socio-political order, not only in Europe, but in all nations that trace their cultural, social, ideological, and political…

Capitol painting won’t prevail on appeal

A controversial painting that made headlines earlier this year is now the subject of a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C., but constitutional experts predict the plaintiff’s free speech arguments are doomed.

The case hinges on whether an art competition held by members of Congress qualifies as “government speech,” which has less protection under the First Amendment.

The legal feud has…

Two big things happened at the Baltimore City Paper last month. First, the paper yanked an extremely negative review of a Jason Aldean concert from its website after two unnamed advertisers threatened to pull their ads from the paper. Second, the local daily newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, announced that it was buying the alternative weekly.

How those two events might be related, I couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you: Journalists hate few things more than advertisers dictating content, with the possible exception of executives who cave to advertisers wanting to dictate content.

After I posted a story about the Aldean review to Facebook, a friend asked if I'd ever been instructed to doctor a review. Maybe I'm lucky, but I really can't remember facing a situation like the one at the City Paper.

However …

I have had people want me to change photos that ran with the online version of a story. If they were nice about it and the choice of the photo didn't much matter in the first place, I tried to oblige. (If they were jerks and called making a demand rather than a request, I dug in my heels and stuck with the original photo.)

I've had an artist refuse to talk to me for years after reading negative comments I'd written.

I've had another one send me hate mail (which, frankly, wasn't anything worse than what I'd written in the first place, so it's not like I had any place to complain).

I've had the mother of a member of a prominent country group quote back to me a slam I'd made against the group's first album — 10 years after I'd written it.

I've had managers chew me out over my articles.

I've had publicists of big-name acts swear I'd never talk to their artists again (I did).

I've had someone try to threaten one of my sources of income because of something I wrote for a different outlet.

I've had an artist get very upset with me for leaving out the word "the" when quoting the lyrics to one of his songs. In his defense, it was the central line in the central song on the album, so omitting it did change the meaning of the entire album. I still swear he didn't actually sing the word, but we had a good conversation about it afterward when he realized I understood just how important that particular "the" was.

I've also been fired for writing something stupid (and, in retrospect, probably potentially libelous). Even then, though, my publisher didn't pull the piece. He let it run and let me pay the consequences.

Over the years, I've tried to cultivate a reputation for appreciating music of all types, and I've been more interested in what the audience gets out of the music rather than whether I think it's cool or not. So if I go on a tear like the guy at the City Paper did, I try to make sure I include good reasons in the piece to back up my opinion. Hopefully, I've also built up some goodwill over the years so I can't be painted simply as a hater.

All in all, my career's been pretty good to me, and so have most of my colleagues and employers. Others haven't. And because I consider a free press important, even when we're taking potshots at Jason Aldean, today's donation goes to the Newseum and the First Amendment Center.

(Also, just for the record, none of my examples had anything to do with Jason Aldean.)

March 3: Newseum/First Amendment Center

The WSJ reports on the decision last week of SCOTUS which allows political fund opt-outs for members and non-members. This link will bypass the paywall. With a different slant, here’s the LA Times, and here’s the First Amendment Center’s Take.  

Did you know our Keynote speaker was on the team that founded USA Today? Learn that, and a lot more about our honored guest in this article from Iowa State's news service.