POST FOUR: Voices in the Media

 After exploring these websites, I have taken a notice that these voices expressed through these websites take a very strong sided approach to the subject of anti-war. However, it is brought to the attention of the class that these voices are not heard through the media. This is inherently true and could be caused by the lack of support from the government or society, as a whole. While these people, under the first amendment freedoms of the freedom of speech and the freedom of press, have the right to express their thoughts and share them with the public, this does not necessarily mean that the media has to share those ideas as well. 

 

The media is an interesting topic of discussion when it comes to what is shown and what is not. Of course, there is the discussions of biased media and fake news, however, I feel that something that is not talked about enough is how the media likes to focus on very negative aspects of news like war, violence, and hatred. Rarely, do we ever see news that is positive or focused on change. For another example besides the anti-war voices who want to promote peace, the Black Lives Matter protests have a similar light in the media. Mostly, the media likes to focus on the violence protests and looting that happens, however, the vast majority of protests are very peaceful and done with absolute grace. But, do we see these peaceful protests in the news? No. 

 

I truly believe that the media doesn't have the intent of the people or keeping the people informed in mind. If this was truly the case, they would include positive news as well as negative news. Instead, the news focuses on headlines that catch attention. And if they do include positive stories, they tend to promote their main stories as violent and negative news, attracting the attention. Then, they save the positive stories for last, just to say that they included something positive. This disgusting way of controlling the media has taken over how we view the news and all that we can do is speak out.

POST THREE: Black Lives Matter and the First Amendment

 For this assignment, we were asked to choose a news story that involves the Black Lives Matter movement and analyze it through the many aspects of the First Amendment including the six freedoms of the First Amendment, the three bedrock principles about the First Amendment, and anything else we have learned in class thus far about the First Amendment. I decided to pick a recent article about a Vermont Roman-Catholic school that goes by the name of Rice Memorial High School. This school has banned the use of the Black Lives Matter signs and flags on their campus. 

A statement by the superintendent of Catholic Schools, Jeanne Gearon, reveals that the intentions behind this decision are not out of lack of support for the racial inequalities of the United States, however, it is to prevent any political messages on campus. They have also banned "Make America Great Again" flags and signs or anything that promotes political involvement on their campus. Looking at the situation through a lens of the First Amendment, this school is more than entitled to make this action. The very first and arguably most prominent reason is because the school is Private and not owned by the government. 

 

Instead of completely banning anything that promotes social justice or equality, the schools have created an alternative to the Black Lives Matter signs and flags that state "Racism has no home here." This alternative is also allowed due to the matters of the school being a private campus. This relates to the three bedrock principles of the First Amendment which state, "First Amendment protection is not absolute," "The First Amendment is not a shield against laws of general applicability," and "the Freedom of the Press is a fundamental personal right, and not an institutional one." The first principle ties into this situation directly, and proves that because of the dichotomy of public and private institutions that the protection of the First Amendment does not apply everywhere. 

Link to the article: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/09/15/vt-catholic-schools-rice-high-school-blm-black-lives-matter-signs-promotes-racial-justice/5801957002/

POST TWO: The Supreme Court

 The United States Supreme Court was created in 1789, after the Revolutionary War and during the beginnings of America. It was created by Article 3 of the Constitution, stating "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." The very first action taken by the Supreme court was the Judiciary Act of 1789, in order to inaugurate George Washington into his role as President of the United States.  

 

While the Supreme Court is a powerhouse of multiple justices, the highest power resides in the position of the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice does multiple things that reside over the court including setting the agenda for meetings and when the Chief Justice is in the majority opinion, he or she can decide who will write the court's opinion. One of the most recently looked at positions of the Chief Justice is the presiding of impeachment trails. This was used for Presidents Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. 

The Supreme Court holds so much power that not many people realize. Without famous cases like Mapp vs. Ohio, Roe vs. Wade, and Obergefell v. Hodges, we would have limited rights as citizens and wouldn't be able to do things like not having criminal evidence obtained illegally or not being able to have an abortion or even get married in the case of same-sex couples.