Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost

Of all times in time of war the press should be free.

The 1st Amendment does not mandate that the press be accurate.

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

We need a free media, not just freedom of speech.

We believe that the remedy to any harm resulting from press freedom lies in press freedom itself.

The newspapers, magazines and other journals of the country, it is safe to say, have shed and continue to shed, more light on the public and business affairs of, the nation than any other instrumentality of public; and since informed public opinion is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment, the suppression or abridgment of the publicity afforded by a free press cannot be regarded otherwise than with grave concern.

To arrest a journalist for performing his duty is a confiscation of the freedom of expression guaranteed by all international pacts

The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

Junk journalism is the evidence of a society that has got at least one thing right, that there should be nobody with the power to dictate where responsible journalism begins

In the U.S., free speech and the press are protected by the First Amendment. It has a clarity unmatched by modern legislators and declares that 'Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.'

The press is the only profession protected in the Constitution because of how important the framers viewed the press. But in authoritarian regimes, they control the press.

The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

The Defense Department's plan to ban newspaper reporters from pool coverage of military operations is incredible. It reveals the administration to be out of touch with journalism, reality and the First Amendment.

The debate about the war seems pretty robust and free. Many publications, from the New Yorker to the Nation, feel perfectly comfortable printing anti-American articles and that's fine. That's what the First Amendment is all about.

The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.

The first responsibility of the press is to use its freedom to protect the rights and liberties of all individuals …. If the occasion arises, raise bloody hell.

A free press can of course be good or bad, but most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.

Freedom of the Press and Constitutional Liberty must live or perish together.

The political misrepresentation of facts is one of the incidents of a free press in every free country.

The press must be free; it has always been so and much evil has been corrected by it. If Government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own conduct and it will find the cause.

If you don't think a television news show represents the truth, you can turn off your TV. If you don't think a magazine represents the truth, you can cancel your subscription. You have the right to expose yourself to whatever information you want. But to have the government prescribing what the truth is or limiting the information available for the citizen is contrary to the 1st Amendment.

… the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

What is the liberty of the press? Who can give it any definition that would not leave the utmost latitude for evasion …. Its [the press's] security … must altogether depend on public opinion.