How free can the press be?

by Randall P. Bezanson

"In How Free Can the Press Be? Randall P. Bezanson explores the changes in understanding of press freedom in America by discussing in depth nine of the most pivotal and provocative First Amendment cases in U.S. judicial history. These cases, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and even a local circuit court, concerned matters ranging from the New York Times's publication of the Pentagon Papers to Hugo Zacchini, the human cannonball, who claimed television broadcasts of his act threatened his livelihood. Other cases include a politician blackballed by the Miami Herald and prevented from responding in its pages, the Pittsburgh Press arguing it had the right to employ gender-based column headings in its classified eds section, and the victim of an illegal involuntary sterilization suing the Des Moines Register over that paper's publication of intimate details, including the victim's name. Each case resulted in a ruling that refined or reshaped judicial definition o