Requiem for the First Ammendment?
This study pops up every year or so, and every time I see it I can't believe the results. 100,000 high school students surveyed, along with 8000 teachers:
- 54 percent of the students said all newspapers should be able to
publish freely without government approval, up from 51 percent in 2004. - Students say they felt the First Amendment as a
whole goes too far. In 2006, 45 percent said the First Amendment goes
too far, versus 35 percent two years ago. - In 2004, 38
percent of teachers thought the press had too much freedom. That figure
dropped in 2006 to 29 percent. Student attitudes are improving as well,
though more slowly. In 2004, 32 percent thought the press has too much
freedom. In 2006, that figure dropped to 30 percent.
I guess I won't panic, as some of this is probably just high school kids being muddle-headed about everything. It would be interesting to see if these attitudes are being caused more by leftish fears (e.g. political correctness, don't say anything bad about women or minorities or gays or handicapped or...) or by rightish fears (e.g. national security activities)
Hat Tip: Hit and Run
