The Justices and News Judgment: The Supreme Court as News Editor

Abstract

This symposium contribution explores Supreme Court analysis of journalistic news judgment in the early years of the Court. It argues that these pre-New York Times v. Sullivan decisions help show that the Court’s sense of newsworthiness shifted in more modern times to be more in line with that of journalism, favoring the public interest in information rather than the public need for the information. In this way, it suggests that even an early Court at times sided with journalistic news judgment over privacy concerns.

Keywords: Newsworthiness, Privacy, Journalism, Media Law, First Amendment, Freedom of the Press

JEL Classification: K00, K13