The Fuzzy Line Between Journalism and Propaganda

“The Yellow Press” by L.M. Glackens (1910), depicting William Randolph Hearst as a jester tossing his newspapers. (Library of Congress)

“Congress shall make no law,” declares the first amendment to the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution, “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

As such, the News business remains the only private industry with a Constitutional mandate. But in reality, ever since public airwaves ceded dominance of TV news to corporate cable, there is little regulatory oversight that…