STATUS: Mostly incomplete.
Chapter 9 -- Restrict the Press

    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
        First Amendment

In all dictatorships, targeting the free press begins with political pressure--loud, angry campaigns for the news to be represented in a way that supports the group that seeks dominance. Attacks escalate to smears, designed to shame members of the press personally; then editors face pressure to fire journalists who are not parroting the party line. A caste of journalists and editors who support the regime develops, whether out of conviction, a wish for advancement, or fear.

Such regimes promote false news in a systematic campaign of disinformation, even as they go after independent voices.

America is still a fairly open society in which assertions can be independently verified and a thriving Internet community can tear apart false allegations. Even in the United States, though, opinion is being penalized, and false news is being disseminated which disorients the public.

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