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-------. Cross-Channel Ownership of Mass Media; a Study in Social Evaluation. New York, Columbia University, 1953. 289p. (Ph.D. dissertation, University Microfilms, no. 5197) L203
-------."Organization and Control of Communications Satellites." University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 113:315-57, January 1965. L204
The article gives a description of the new type of legal entity under the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 (the creation of the Communications Satellite Corp., Com Sat) to operate a global system of communications satellites. He considers why the new type of joint government-private enterprise venture was chosen, the nature of the rejected alternatives, and the potential dangers to Com Sat's fulfillment of its sponsors' expectation. "To avoid serious impairment of international confidence in American leadership in space communication, therefore, foreclosed or inequitable access by any class of users or suppliers must be prevented."
-------. "Social Welfare Aspect of FCC Broadcast Licensing Standards." American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 12:39-55, October 1953. L205
Levin, Meyer. "The Candid Cameraman: Hollywood Producers Submit to Foreign Dictators, Incidentally Giving America War-minded Films." Esquire, 6(5):125, 211-12, November 1936. (Condensed in Reader's Digest, December 1936) L206
American war movies destined for foreign markets (40 per cent of output) must glorify war or else risk censorship. Americans, therefore, are served prowar pictures because they are more profitable for Hollywood producers.
Levinthal, Louis E. "Reminiscences of 'A Cause Celebre,'" Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, 37:39-45, October 1965. L207
A Philadelphia judge recalls one of his most interesting cases, an appeal from the State Board of Censors to ban the documentary film of the Spanish civil war, Spain in Flames. The decision of the Court of Common Pleas (Levinthal, Bok, and Flood) reviewed the decision, ruling that the film was in the nature of a newsreel and exempt from censorship.
Levy, A. B. "Taboo or Not Taboo." Realist, 1:15-16, April 1959. L208
Levy, Bernard S. "Obscenity--A Perusal and a Proposal." Temple Law Quarterly, 32:322-31, Spring 1959. L209
A general discussion of the Federal and Pennsylvania statutes relating to obscenity. The author attempts a definition of pictorial obscenity.
Levy, H. Philip. "Wilkes and Liberty." Spectator, 195:298, 2 September 1955. L210
"The reasons given for the banning of reports of Parliamentary debates in the 18th century were much the same as the reasons given for the fourteen-day-rule--and other restrictions on broadcasting today." (Preserve Parliamentary dignity, protect members from pressure, and prevent premature comment.) Wilkes was responsible for demolishing the ban on Parliamentary reporting in the eighteenth century and Parliament subsequently gave up the attempt to muzzle the press.
Levy, Leonard W. "Did the Zenger Case Really Matter?" William and Mary Quarterly, 17(3d ser.):35-50, January 1960. L211
The verdict for Zenger was more the result of the magnificent forensics of a great lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, than a milestone in the change of common law on seditious libel. "The Zenger case at best gave the press the freedom to print the 'truth' but only if the truth were directed away from the assembly . . . No cause was more honored by rhetorical denunciation and dishonored in practice than that of freedom of expression during the revolutionary period, from the 1760's through the War of Independence."
-------. Jefferson & Civil Liberties; the Darker Side. Cambridge, Mass., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963. 225p. L212
The author's thesis is that Thomas Jefferson, long revered as the apostle of American liberty, "did not directly apply to practical political problems a libertarian creed to which he adhered consistently." Levy found "a strong pattern of unlibertarian, even antilibertarian thought throughout Jefferson's long career." Chapter 3 deals with problems of a free press. While Jefferson was deeply devoted to freedom of religious, scientific, and philosophical expression, he was less tolerant of political dissent. While supporting freedom of the press in the abstract, Jefferson distrusted the press and, following the ideas of Black--stone, approved prosecution for falsity. His opposition to prosecutions under the Sedition Act, seldom vigorous, was based on the opinion that prosecution of the abuses in the press should be left to the states. He remained silent when state authorities acted against the Philadelphia editor, Joseph Dennie, and New York editor, Harry Croswell, and was long silent when his Connecticut party leaders took libel action against critics of Jefferson and his administration. By the time Jefferson left the presidency, he was so convinced of the licentiousness of the press "that he professed to believe that it was doing more harm than would result from its prosecution." Levy recounts Jefferson's efforts at censorship at the University of Virginia and his endorsement of Baxter's edition of the works of David Hume, which the editor had altered silently "to make it what truth and candor say it should be."
-------. Legacy of Suppression: Freedom of Speech and Press in Early American History. Cambridge, Mass., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960. 353p. (A revised edition with a new preface was issued in 1963 by Harper Torchbooks) L213
A "revisionist" interpretation of the origins of the freedom of speech and the press clause in the First Amendment, showing that "the generation which adopted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights did not believe in a broad scope of freedom of expression, particularly in the realm of politics." In this documented study Professor Levy traces the development of the ideas of freedom of expression from the days of Milton and Locke in seventeenth-century England to the emergence of an American libertarian theory. The latter began to emerge when the Jeffersonians were forced to defend themselves against the Sedition Act of 1798. In the preface to the Torchbook edition, Levy writes: "I am still convinced that the First Amendment was not intended to supersede the common law of seditious libel, that the legislatures rather than the courts were the chief suppressive agencies, that the theory of freedom of speech in political matters was quite narrow until 1798, that English libertarian theory was in the vanguard of the American, that the Bill of Rights was in large measure a lucky political accident, and that the First Amendment was more an expression of federalism than of libertarianism." The Levy thesis attracted considerable attention from reviewers, who argued the case pro and con. Reviews by James Morton Smith in William and Mary Quarterly, January 1963, Merrill Jensen, Harvard Law Review, December 1961, John A. Cound, New York Law Review, January 1961, and Harold L. Nelson, Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1961, are included.
-------. "Liberty and the First Amendment: 1700-1800." American Historical Review, 68:22-37, October 1962. L214
The author develops the thesis that there was "a sudden break-through in American libertarian thought on freedom of speech and press" in 1798 which repudiated the Blackstonian concept that freedom of the press meant merely freedom from prior restraint. This new libertarianism, which originated as an "expedience of self-defense on the part of a beseiged political minority . . . established virtually all at once and in nearly perfect form a theory justifying the rights of individual expression and of opposition parties."
-------. "Satan's Last Apostle in Massachusetts." American Quarterly, 5:16-30, April 1953. L215
The story of Abner Kneeland, the last man to be jailed in Massachusetts for the crime of blasphemy. The antireligious views he expressed in his newspaper, Boston Investigator, got him into trouble with the authorities. In the decision, Commonwealth v. Kneeland, 37 Mass. Reports 206 ff. (1838), the judge warned of the consequences if Kneeland's doctrines became widespread among the poor--they might become dissatisfied with their lot. On release from prison Kneeland emigrated with members of his First Society of Free Inquirers, to form a utopian society in frontier Iowa.
-------. ed. Freedom of the Press from Zenger to Jefferson. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1966. 409p. (American Heritage Series) L216
"This anthology is valuable on two levels. On the one it is the first compendium of the classic American statements on freedom of the press from Andrew Hamilton's defense in the Zenger case (1735) to Alexander Hamilton's defense in the Croswell case (1804), including the full texts of oft-quoted opinions of Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. On the second level, Professor Levy offers a documentary defense of his provocative thesis [see his Legacy of Suppression]. Thus here are assembled a representative selection of the only substantial writings that enable us to weigh the intent of the drafters of the first amendment--James Wilson, Richard Henry Lee, William Cushing, and John Adams. Here occupying a major section of the collection are the statements of 'The New Libertarianism' of 1799-1800 which hitherto have been available only in rare book depositories: the tracts of George Hay and John Thomson, Madison's Virginia Reports, Albert Gallatin's speech in Congress, and generous excerpts from Tunis Wortman's A Treatise Concerning Political Inquiry . . . Finally, here are some two dozen lengthy selections from the letters and state papers of Thomas Jefferson that will enable readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether Professor Levy's negative verdict in Jefferson and Civil Liberties . . . is warranted."--Alfred Young in the Foreword.
Lewis, Alfred H. "That Idaho Contempt Case." Hearst's Magazine, 24:224-34, August 1913. L217
Criticism of the Idaho Supreme Court for conviction of three editors for publishing President Roosevelt's criticism of the judiciary of the state.
Lewis, Anthony. "Cameras in Court--A growing Debate." New York Times Magazine, 2 October 1960, p. 224. L218
-------. "The Case of 'Trial' by Press." New York Times Magazine, 18 October 1964, pp.31 ff L219
Criticizes excessive pretrial publicity and urges the press to find ways of preventing abuses instead of complaining about threats to the freedom of the press.
-------. "Law and the Censor." New York Times, 112:12, 20 February 1963. L220
Deals with the U.S. Supreme Court's 8 to 1 decision holding unconstitutional certain activities of the Rhode Island Commission to Encourage Morality in Youth. The activities concerned the Commission's efforts to remove objectionable publications from the newsstands.
-------. "The Most Recent Troubles of Tropic: A Chapter in Censorship." New York Times Book Review, 67(3):4-5, 16, 18, 21 January 1962. L221
A report on the nationwide controversy over the Grove Press publication of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, which went "further in vulgarity of subject matter and candor of treatment than many Americans are now prepared to accept."
-------. "Sex . . . and the Supreme Court." Esquire, 59(6):82-83, 141-43, June 1963. L222
"Applying steady pressure, nine calm men are dragging the censor, kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century . . . Gradually, without much notice but with developing momentum [the Supreme Court] has cut back the censor's power over literature and the arts generally." The article reviews the decisions of the court in matters of obscenity in the last decade. "The swift change in legal standards during the last decade has left us all with one burden--the volume of pretentious trash that fills the bookshelves." Now that crude sex expressions are no longer forbidden they may pass out of fashion. The choice of reading good or bad literature, within the expanding limits of the courts, is now up to the reader--"as the Constitution intended it should be."
Lewis, C. S. "Four-Letter Words." Critical Quarterly, 3(2):118-22, Summer 1961. L223
-------. "Prudery and Philology." Spectator, 194:63, 21 January 1955. L224
The author considers this literary problem: Why have societies in general been willing to accept a drawing of a naked human body, while objecting to an equally detailed description of the same object in words? What is the cause of this seemingly arbitrary discrimination?
Lewis, Denslow. "Practical Prophylaxis." Medical Record, 72:594-600, 12 October 1907. L225
An account of various acts of sex censorship, all of which the author opposes.
Lewis, Edward G. "Lese Majesty." Woman's National Weekly, 14:2, 19 August 1911. L226
Shows how criticism of the postal officials in periodicals is punished by departmental action.
[Lewis, Freeman, et al.]. "Freedom to Read." Publishers' Weekly, 181(21):26-28, 21 May 1962. L227
Summary of a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the American Book Publishers Council. Participants: Freeman Lewis (chairman), Richard Corbin, and Richard Morgan.
Lewis, Shippen. "Action for Libel Where Defendant Has Used a Fictitious Name." University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 58:166-69, December 1909. L228
A British case in which a fictitious name used in a newspaper fiction coincided with that of a real person and led to a libel suit. There are three categories of intent: (1) The author intends the statements about the plaintiff, but does not intend them to be libelous; (2) he intends to make an innocent statement, but through a mistake it is libelous; and (3) defendant has no idea of any reference to the plaintiff, which is the present case.
[Lewis, Sinclair]. "Fearless Press Is Why It Can't Happen Here." American Press, 54(2):3, December 1935. L229
In an interview with Percy B. Scott, Lewis states that he chose a country newspaper publisher as the central figure in his novel It Can't Happen Here because such publishers are today "the best line of defense we have or will have for some time to come to prevent the establishment of a dictatorship."
Lewis, Thomas P. "Freedom of Speech and Motion Pictures--the Miracle Decision." Kentucky Law Journal, 41:257-64, January 1953. L230
"In Burstyn v. Wilson, the Supreme Court of the United States for the first time was presented squarely with the question: Are motion pictures within the ambit of protection which the First Amendment, through the Fourteenth Amendment, secures to any form of speech or the press? The question was answered in the affirmative and a 37-year-old anomaly in Constitutional Law--based on an application of a state constitution--was thereby abandoned." The case was based on The Miracle, banned by the Board of Regents of New York.
Lewis, Walker. "The Right to Complain: The Trial of John Peter Zenger." American Bar Association Journal, 46:27-30, 108-11, January 1960. L231
A Washington lawyer retells the trial for seditious libel of John Peter Zenger (1735), setting forth in some detail the arguments of the defense counsel, Andrew Hamilton.
Lewis, William D. "English Cases on the Restraint of Libel by Injunction." American Law Register, 51:322-40, June 1903. L232
-------. "The Law of Blasphemous Libel." Solicitors' Journal, 4:45-49, 26 November 1859. (Also in Papers, Juridical Society, 2:250-82, 1858-63) L233
Paper read at a meeting of the Juridical Society, 21 November 1859; discussed at a subsequent meeting of the Society and the discussion reported in the issue for 10 December 1859.
Lewis, Wyndham. The Writer and the Absolute. London, Methuen, 1952. 202 p. L234
"It is dangerous to live, but to write is much more so." Lewis discusses the freedom or lack of freedom of the creative writer, who he believes should have "freedom to speculate, to criticize, to create, on the same terms as those enjoyed by the men of science." The man of letters should have the same freedom to deal with "history-in-the-making" as the historian has freedom to deal with past events. Lewis discusses the unorthodox social and political views of prominent British authors and their reception. He fears that political events today lead "one to believe that the individual may not be allowed for very much longer to express himself in writing."
"Liabilities of Editors." Law Times, 48:142, 25 December 1869. L235
The case of Dr. Shorthouse, convicted for a libel in the Sporting Times. The Court held that the editor is responsible for everything that appears in his paper.
"Liability for Libels." Law Journal, 12:728-30, 15 December 1877. L236
Regarding Milissich v. Lloyds, which involves the right of publication of fair reports of trials and discussion of affairs of public interest, and Queen v. Holbrook, which holds that a newspaper proprietor who had no knowledge of the publication of a libel in his paper is not held responsible. Also reported in Solicitors' Journal, 8 December 1877, and in Irish Law Journal, 16 February 1878.
"Libel and the Freedom of the Press." Quarterly Review, 117:519-39, April 1865. L237
The author reviews four publications, including two dealing with the topic of freedom of the press--Thomas Starkie's Treatise on the Law of Libel and Slander, 3d ed., and A Bill to Amend the Law of Libel, introduced by Sir Colman O'Loghlen and others. The author objects to the Bill in part because of a clause which relieves the publisher of a newspaper from libel in reporting a public speech containing libelous matter, provided the defendant has been given the right of response.
Libel Cases; Benjamin F. Butler vs. The Publisher and Editor of the Lowell Courier. n.p., n.d. 15p. L238
Trial held at the Court of Common Pleas, Cambridge, Mass., 1852.
"Libel: Liability of the Printer." Law Journal, 6:225, 7 April 1871. L239
Messers. Spottiswoode & Co. were convicted of libel for merely printing a journal that they did not own or edit.
"Libel on a Government; Authority and Precedent in Libel Cases." Law Journal, 44:42, 23 January 1909. L240
Comments on the libel suit by the United States government against the New York World.
"Libels on Deceased Persons." Law Times, 59:257-58, 7 August 1875. L241
A review of the law which enables relatives of deceased persons to protect the dead from libelous assertions.
"Libels on Professional Men." Solicitors' Journal, 9:518-19, 22 April 1865. L242
The law of libel furnishes doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professional men greater protection than it affords statesmen and men of letters who have chosen to place themselves in the public eye.
"Libels Which Are No Libels." Irish Law Times, 15:204-5, 16 April 1881. (Reprinted from Justice of the Peace) L243
Too many thin-skinned people are bringing libel charges before justices, where no case really exists.
Liber, B. "Dr. Liber and Post Office." New Republic, 20:61, 13 August 1919. L244
Tells of the suppression of Liber's book on sexual life on the pretense of its being obscene, but with private confession that it is too radical in its economic explanation of disease and prostitution.
"Liberalism and the Censor." New Republic, 34:148-49, 4 April 1923. L245
Censorship is usually the tool of the Tory who doesn't object to vice and war portrayed in print or on the stage but believes they ought to be kept in their place. The Liberal knows that a better world is possible and strives to eliminate the evils by breaking down the barriers to understanding.
Liberty Defense Union; Purpose; to Organize Popular Support in Behalf of Persons Prosecuted for the Exercise of their Constitutional Right of Free Speech and Free Press. New York City, [1918]. L246
"Liberty of Criticism, and the Law of Libel." Fraser's Magazine, 68:35-45, July 1863. L247
A review of the English law of libel in light of the awarding of damages to Dr. Campbell against the Saturday Review (Campbell v. Spottiswoode). The author believes the decision did not limit the law of libel in protecting the right of free discussion.
The Liberty of the Press. London, Printed for W. Nicoll, [176-?]. 58p. L248
Written soon after the Wilkes North Briton affair. While defending freedom of the press, the author objects to the scurrility and abuses. "Let us endeavor to enlarge its [the Press's] Power of doing good. . . . But since it is confessedly capable of producing much Mischief, let it be restrained by that power of Law, which marks the Boundaries of the Prerogatives, and in all other Instances, the Rights of the People." The unknown author calls on Parliament to do its duty.
"Liberty of the Press." Edinburgh Review, 18:98-123, May 1811. L249
A free press in England is restricted by the law of libel which punishes "all those who dare to speak ill of the ministers." It is, in effect, "liberty to speak ill of all those who are the minister's enemies." The article is prompted by Emanuel Ralph's book La Liberté de la Presse. Attributed to James Mill by his biographer, Alexander Bain.
-------. Niles Register, 33:359-60, 26 January 1828. (Reprinted from the Charleston City Gazette) L250
Deals with a debate in the South Carolina Senate over a bill requiring editors to reveal the source of their news. The bill failed to pass.
-------. Scottish Review, 38 (n.s.):1-5, Spring 1915. L251
Press censorship cannot be excused or defended save on grounds of urgent public necessity and hardly then. The author objects to wartime censorship; he complains of the suppression of certain Irish journals on grounds of being subsidized by German interests. The real reason, he charges, is that their ideas are objectionable to English Liberals. Scotland, thus far, is free of censorship.
"Liberty of the Press and Its Abuses." Edinburgh Review, 27:102-44, September 1816. L252
A discussion of the libel law of England and its restriction on the liberty of the press. The article is prompted by the publication of the second edition of Holt's Law of Libel.
[Liberty of the Press; Sedition Law of 1798]. Southern Review, 3:450-67, May 1829. L253
A review with commentary on the resolution submitted in the U.S. House of Representatives, declaring unconstitutional the Sedition Act of 1798 and providing for a restoration of fines levied against those convicted under the Act. The author argues for the resolution, pointing out that it was not enough to let the act expire, that "effective securities ought to be obtained against any effort, in future, to make what are generally called political libels, punishable by the authority of the United States, and consequently cognizable in the Federal Courts."
Libra, pseud. "The Press Censorship." English Review, 22:261-72, March 1916. L254
A defense of Britain's wartime Press Bureau against its many critics, particularly Alexander Campbell, whose criticisms appeared in the English Review, January 1916, and Edward P. Bell, American correspondent.
"Librarians and Censorship." Bookseller, 3044:1712, 25 April 1964. L255
General principles of censorship, the present state of the law, the librarians' position, and practical ways of dealing with sexy books and unpopular subjects were discussed in the 1964 Weekend School of the Association of Assistant Librarians, Durham,10-12 April.
["Librarians' Responsibility in the Treatment of Bad Literature"]. Library Journal, 33:347-48, September 1908. L256
Editorial discussing what libraries should do about the "unfortunate deluge of bad books" now being published, especially in the form of fiction. Not to select or buy is one answer, another is to lock away those already on the shelves. Librarians should bring public sentiment against such books to bear on publishers.
"Libraries Everywhere Involved in Tropic of Cancer Fight." Library Journal, 87:65-68, 1 January 1962. L257
"Library Board's Policy on Censorship." Australian Library Journal, 13:59, June 1964. L258
Policy adopted by the Library Board of New South Wales.
"Library Censorship of Current Fiction: Some Principles to be Observed." New York Libraries, 9:208-9, February 1925. L259
A book is not to be accepted because it is innocuous, nor rejected because it is written from a point of view alien to the librarian; it is not to be rejected because a few people call it bad or because it is not suitable for all ages and grades of intelligence.
Library Employes Union of Greater New York. "Public Libraries and Censorship." Library Journal, 49:885-86, 15 October 1924. L260
Summary of charges in a report to the Executive Board of the American Federation of Labor to the effect that Carnegie libraries are not controlled by the municipalities in which they exist but by a board of trustees appointed, generally, by the foundations themselves; that there is coming into being a system under which only books approved in a certain manner may be placed on foundation library shelves; and that an unjust certification of librarians is coming into practice.
Library Journal. New York, R. R. Bowker, 1876-date. Semimonthly (September-June), monthly (July-August). L261
A major source of articles and news relating to freedom of the press and freedom to read, as applied to libraries.
"The Licentiousness of the Press." Brownson's Quarterly Review, 3 (n.s.):517-43, October 1849. L262
The writer defends the restraints on the radical press in England, citing a speech on the law of the press by Count de Montalembert, given in the French Assembly, 21 July 1849. The Count discounts the influence of the press in England and the United States because it "disdains logic and renders reason superfluous." The European press, he argues, should be subjected to greater restraint because it exerts greater influence for good or evil and because "mental culture there is of a superior order."
Lichtman, Richard. "Sex Censorship in a Free Society." University of Kansas City Review, 28:55-64, October 1961. L263
"The fact that our culture is saturated with sexually provocative material and suffering from forms of maladjustment such as increasingly juvenile and violent crimes leads a certain element of the population to link the two and to demand elimination of the first as a significant requirement for the elimination of the second." The author criticizes censorship of sexual expression for three reasons: (1) it is a flat contradiction of the First Amendment, (2) there is no evidence that adult sex crimes are the result of contact with erotic material, and (3) nobody can agree on what is pornographic. He comments on the difficulty of keeping the power of a censor in check and the likelihood of anyone who accepts the job being unaware of the aesthetic values in literature. There is no easy solution, but it is not in suppression.
Lichtman, W. T. Certain Restrictions in the Acquisition and Use of Books in Undergraduate Liberal Arts College Libraries. New York, School of Library Service, Columbia University, 1939. 95p. (Unpublished Master's thesis) L264
Lidschin, Rose. "Censorship and the American Heritage, or 'You Can't Read that!'" Public Libraries, 5:3, 56-60, June 1951. L265
The author emphasizes the responsibility of the librarian to provide material on all sides of a controversy and, by wide community contacts, to build up support of the library as a positive agent in the dissemination of knowledge.
Lieberman, Irving. "Reflections of an American Librarian: Intellectual Freedom and Libraries." Librarian, 42:25-26, February 1953. L266
Reviews the efforts in the United States to uphold the Library Bill of Rights and cites some of the attempts at censorship--attacks on the UNESCO pamphlet used in the Los Angeles schools and the newspaper crusade against Communist literature in the Boston Public Library.
Lieberman, J. Ben. Changing Concepts of Freedom of the Press. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University, 1952. 332p. (Ph.D. dissertation in Political Science) L267
The purpose of the study is (1) "to delineate the various major concepts which have been labeled 'freedom of the press,"' (2) "to study contemporary opinion and actions for implicit new concepts, and relate them to the main body of concepts," and (3) to offer a thesis as to a serviceable general concept under conditions now developing. "Under the emerging conception," the writer finds, "Freedom of the Press is the right to serve, without government interference, the more fundamental right of Freedom of Information, the latter being the right of the people to assure themselves of the fullest supply of information possible."
-------. "Restating the Concept of Freedom of the Press." Journalism Quarterly, 30:131-38, Spring 1953. L268
"The only answer to those who insist on confusing responsibilities with freedom of the press is to go back to first principles. . . . Freedom of the press still rests, therefore, on the faith that public policy is better served by absolutely uncontrolled expression on political matters than by any method of control, no matter how benignly devised."
-------. "Should the School Press Be Free?" California Journal of Secondary Education, 24:340-46, October 1949. (Reprinted in Education Digest, January 1950) L269
The principles involved in constitutional freedom of the press should be applied to school newspapers. Under the present system too often the only example of the press that the students really know--the student paper--operates on an entirely different basis. The article is concerned with developing editors and writers who will defend freedom of the press, and with ways a free student press may help to accomplish this objective.
Lieberman, Marvin S. "Obscenity Is Not Within the Area of Constitutionally Protected Speech and Press." University of Illinois Law Forum, 1957:499-505, Fall 1957. L270
Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
Liebling, A. J. "The End of Free Lunch." In his The Press. New York, Ballantine, 1964, pp. 3-12. L271
In this foreword to the author's collection of witty and caustic commentary on the state of the press, he describes the American press as being in a monopolistic situation where "the paper can cut out news as the saloons cut out free lunch." In another section, No News, he discusses the practice of "the expert, who writes what he construes to be the meaning of what he hasn't seen." He illustrates this by the American press coverage of Stalin's death and the events that followed.
The Light. Published by the World's Purity Federation, LaCrosse, Wis., bimonthly, 1897-1937. L272 §
The Light was known as "the magazine that broke the age-old conspiracy of silence on problems of life and sex." It was the organ of the World's Purity Federation and was edited by B. S. Steadwell of LaCrosse, Wis., beginning in 1897 until his death in 1937. It brought together, through the Federation, curious fellow travelers, who could agree on only one thing--the need for sex hygiene, although not on the kind of literature that promoted the cause. The Federation at one time included Anthony Comstock and J. Frank Chase from the vice societies, the WCTU's Frances Willard, the columnist Dorothy Dix, and the libertarian lawyer and enemy of censorship, Theodore A. Schroeder. J. Frank Chase was editor of the magazine's Department of Contributory Vices. A picture of Steadwell appears on the cover of the November-December 1926 issue.
Lilburne, John. A Christian Mans Triall or a Trve Relation of the first apprehension and severall examinations of Iohn Lilburne, with his Censure in Star-Chamber, and the manner of his cruel whipping through the Streets: whereunto is annexed his Speech in the Pillory, and their gagging of him: also the severe Order of the Lords made the same day for fettering his hands and feet in yrons, and for keeping his friends and monies from him . . . London, 1638. 39p. (Second edition by William Larnar in 1641; in various other editions during Lilburne's lifetime) L273 §
Writing from prison, Lilburne, the leading crusader for the freedom of the press during the Puritan Revolution, describes his arrest, arraignment, and trial. He was accused of printing seditious tracts (Bastwick's Letany and other antiprelatical works), brought before the Star Chamber, convicted, and sentenced to solitary confinement. He was set free by the Long Parliament and continued his career as radical pamphleteer. Joseph Frank in The Levellers, describes the style of this pamphlet as "hasty, emotional, undisciplined." Much of it is legalistic and relates to Lilburne's refusal to answer questions at the trial.
[-------.] A Conference with the Souldiers. London, 1653. L274
An anonymously published defense of Lilburne in his trial for libel against Cromwell.
-------. A Copie of a Letter, Written by John Lilburne Leut. Collonell to Mr. William Prinne Esq. . . . London, 1645. 7p. (Facsimile reprint in Haller, Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 181-87) L275
Lilburne demands freedom of the press as a right of every freeborn English subject. He accuses Prynne and the Presbyterians of intolerance to the ideas of others because of fear of their own cause. Prynne, who had himself suffered under the Star Chamber for his writings, was influential in having Lilburne imprisoned in Newgate for this attack.
[-------]. Englands Birth-Right Justified Against all Arbitrary Usurpation, whether Regall or Parliamentary, or under what Vizor soever . . . London, Larner's Press, 1645. 49p. (Facsimile reprint in Haller, Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 258-307) L276
In this tract, written for the common man, Lilburne turns to the Magna Charta as the supreme charter of popular liberty, including liberty of conscience, freedom of the press, and economic justice. He opposes the monopoly in religion granted the clergy and the printing monopoly granted the Stationers' Company.
-------. Free-Mans Freedome Vindicated. London, 1646. 12p. L277
Written from Newgate prison, this pamphlet is an account of Lilburne's defiance of the House of Lords when he was being questioned about an offending pamphlet. The frontispiece of Free-Mans Freedome is a portrait of Lilburne with prison bars across his face and a caption: "The Liberty of The Freeborne English-man, Conferred on him by the house of lords." The House of Lords ordered the pamphlet burned by the common hangman.
[-------.] A Jury-man's Judgement upon the Case of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn: Proving, by Well-grounded Arguments, both to His Own and Every Jury-man's Conscience, that They May Not, Cannot, Ought Not Finde Him Guilty upon the Act of Parliament Made for His Banishment, and to Be a Felon for Returning to England . . .[n.p., 1653?]. 15p. L278
-------. The Legall Fundamentall Liberties of the People of England, Reviewed, Asserted, and Vindicated . . . London, "Printed in the grand yeer of hypocriticall and abominable dissimulation," 1649. 75p. L279
Written by Lilburne when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
-------. Malice detected, In Printing certain Informations And Examinations Concerning Lieut. Col. John Lilburn. The morning of his Tryal: And Which were not at all brought into his Indictment. London, 1653. L280
Lilburne, having been brought to trial for a libel against Cromwell, wrote this pamphlet in his own defense, A Charge of High-Treason exhibited against Oliver Cromwel. This was another episode in Lilburne's long fight against all forms of tyranny--first against the bishops, then against the Presbyterians, and finally against Cromwell, whom he had once served, and Parliament. Lilburne cherished his role as martyr, folk hero, and champion of the rights of the common Englishman. He was the rallying figure for the Levellers and the many years he spent in prison he used to dramatize the cause of freedom. The Council of State characterized him as the greatest libeler of his time. He can also be considered the greatest champion of freedom of the press.
-------. The Picture of the Councel of State, held forth to the Free People of England by Lieut. Col: John Lilburn, Mr. Thomas Prince, and Mr. Richard Overton, now prisoners in the Tower of London . . . London, 1649. 54p. L281
A narrative of the arrest and examination, consisting of a signed statement of each prisoner. Walwyn gives his account in The Fountain of Slaunder Discovered. Frank, in his book, The Levellers (p. 196), writes: "Each of the four dramatic accounts is essentially similar, yet each reveals certain differences in the personalities, though not in the social ideals, of these Leveller leaders."
-------."Proceedings in the Star-Chamber against Him and John Wharton for Publishing Seditious Books, 1637." In Howell, State Trials, vol. 3, pp. 1315 ff; in Borrow, Celebrated Trials, vol. 1, pp. 469-82; and in Rushworth, Historical Collections, pt. 2, pp. 463-69. L282 §
An account of Lilburne's trial in Star Chamber for publication of Bastwick's Letany and other tracts, the first of Lilburne's many persecutions.
[-------]. The Triall, of Lieut. Collonell John Lilburne, By an extraordinary or special Commission, of Oyear and Terminer at the Guild-Hall of London, the 24, 25, 26. October 1649. Being as exactly pen'd and taken in short hand, as it was possible to be done in such a croud and noyes, and transcribed with an indifferent and even hand, both in reference to the Court, and the Prisoner; that so matter of Fact, as it was there declared, might truly come to publick view. . . . Published by Theodorus Varax. . . . London, Printed by Hen. Hils, [1649]. 168p. L283
Lilienthal, David E. "The American Press in War Time." Quill, 30(10):3-4, 14, October 1942. L284
Observations on the role of a free press in a democracy during war, voiced by the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
-------. "The People, the Atom, and the Press." In Summers, Federal Information Controls in Peacetime, pp. 61-64. L285 §
The chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, in an address before the New York State Publishers' Association, 19 January 1948, describes the responsibility of the Commission both with regards to national security and to keeping the public informed. A well-informed public is essential in the formulation of public policy.
Lilly, W. S. "The Ethics of Journalism." Forum, 7:503-512, July 1889. L286
In democracies, the newspaper press undertakes to guide the people to an understanding of matters of state. Liberty of the press is essentially ethical--"liberty to state facts, liberty to argue upon them, liberty to denounce abuses, liberty to advocate reforms." The press of continental Europe falls far short of this goal.
"Limits of Libel." Law Times, 47:421-22, 16 October 1869. L287
An analysis of recent libel cases suggests to the author that we have gone far enough in allowing for the plaintiff.
Linck, Anna A. Freedom of the Press in the United States in World Wars I and II. Columbus, Ohio State University, 1947. 172p. (Unpublished Master's thesis) L288
Lincoln, Abraham. [Letter to Erastus Corning and Others]. In his Collected Works. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press, 1953. vol. 6, pp. 260-69. L289
In a letter dated 12 June 1863, Lincoln defends the wartime restrictions on freedom of the press and the suspension of habeas corpus. He denies the danger "that the American people will, by means of military arrests during the rebellion, lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and Habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite peaceful future" anymore than "a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness, as to persist in feeding upon them through the remainder of a healthful life." On a number of occasions Lincoln disapproved of the action of military commanders against newspapermen. On 1 October 1863 he wrote to General Schofield (pp. 492-93), "Under your recent order, which I have approved, you will only arrest individuals, and suppress assemblies, or newspapers, when they may be working palpable injury to the Military in your charge; and, in no other case will you interfere with the expression of opinion in any form, or allow it to be interfered with violently by others."
Lincoln, William S. Alton Trials: of Winthrop S. Gilman who was indicted with Enoch Long [et al.] for the Crime of Riot Committed on the night of the 7th of November 1837, while engaged in defending a Printing Press from an attack made on it at that time, by An Armed Mob. Written out from notes of the trial, taken at the time, By a member of the Bar of the Alton Municipal Court. Also, the trial of John Solomon [et al.] for a Riot Committed in Alton [the same night] in unlawfully and forcibly entering the Warehouse of Godfrey, Gilman & Co., and breaking up and destroying a Printing Press . . . New York, John F. Trow, 1838. 158p. L290 §
The only record of the trials growing out of the Alton riots and the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, presented without comment. Widely circulated as an antislavery pamphlet.
Lindey, Alexander. Entertainment; Publishing and the Arts; Agreements and the Law. . . . New York, Boardman, 1963 1248p. L291
This compendium of practical information on the law of the communications field includes references to such topics as freedom of expression, censorship, invasion of privacy, libel, and copyright. The reference work is arranged by medium: books, magazines, newspapers, plays, motion pictures, television and radio, music, art work, phonograph recordings, and photographs.
-------. "The Forever Amber Trial." Author, Playwright and Composer, 57:68-70, Summer 1947. L292
A 50-year taboo has been broken in Massachusetts with the freeing of Forever Amber in a civil jurisdiction. "The case has shown that censorship proceedings cannot and must not be tried as run-of-the-millcriminal affairs."
-------. "Thank the Censor!" Publishers' Weekly, 125:1508-10, 21 April 1934. L293
A New York lawyer thanks the censor for rendering a social service by bringing significant books to the attention of the public and by forcing the courts to uphold freedom of the press. References to the work of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and Judge Woolsey's dedsion in the Ulysses case.
Lindley, Ernest K. "Basic Pattern for News Censor's Shears." Newsweek, 18:22, 29 December 1941. L294
Comments on plans for wartime censorship. News of the appointment of Byron Price as wartime censor is reported on pp. 50-51.
-------. "Freedom of Information." Newsweek, 24:47, 11 December 1944. L295
A favorable review of the stand on worldwide freedom of information taken by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. News report on page 88.
-------. "Report on Growing Pains of Censorship." Newsweek, 19:29, 16 February 1942. L296
Conflict between the Office of Censorship and the Army over information on war production.
Lindsay, John V. "Censorship Feeds on Complacency." Library Journal, 89:3909-12, 15 October 1964. L297 §
"No doubt one reason why private censorship groups have proliferated in recent years is that they have not been checked by countervailing efforts by other private groups. . . . It is important for the future of the reading public that persons representing all sides of the question make themselves known, heard, and effective." The author was then Republican Congressman from New York's 17th District, later mayor of New York City.
-------. "Intellectual Freedom and the Federal Government." Publishers' Weekly, 183:18-22, 27 May 1963. L298
In an address before the American Book Publishers Council, Representative Lindsay analyzes recent attacks on the First Amendment, including stringent curbs proposed on freedom of speech and the press. He calls upon citizens to shield the First Amendment as the "greatest legal protection of our liberties."
Linenthal, Eleanor T. Freedom of Speech and the Power of Courts and Congress to Punish for Contempt. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University, 1952. 333p. (Ph.D. dissertation, University Microfilms, no. 19,157) L299
The contemporary conflict between the tradition of free speech and the doctrine that courts and Congress may punish for contempt, derives, in a large measure, from changed patterns of legal, political, and constitutional thought with respect to the functions of government, the scope of individual liberties, and the nature of the judicial process.
Linfield, Seymour L. Laws relating to Birth Control in the United States and Its Territories. New York, Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, 1938. 61p. (Foreword by Margaret Sanger; introduction by Morris L. Ernst) L300
A compilation of federal and state statutes prohibiting or controlling the dissemination of information on birth control. The statutes, Ernst points out, stem from the Comstock Act of 1873 when "literature discussing birth control could be characterized as 'obscene.'" "The reading of the birth control laws of the nation which this pamphlet makes possible (writes Ernst) is the most effective argument for their repeal which could be advanced."
Linington, Elizabeth. The Long Watch. New York, Viking, 1956. 377p. L301
A novel of Revolutionary War days in which the central theme is the struggle of a New York newspaper to survive the British occupation.
Linton, W. J. James Watson: A Memoir of the Days of the Fight for a Free Press in England, and of the Agitation for the People's Charter. Manchester, A. Heywood, [1880?] 93p. L302
Watson, an English publisher, was associated with W. J. Linton, Henry Hetherington, and George J. Holyoake, in the fight against the stamp tax. Watson's earliest service in behalf of freedom of the press was in 1823 in the sale of Palmer's Principles of Nature, for which Carlile and Tunbridge had already been imprisoned. Watson sold the book as a volunteer salesman for Carlile. The work, dealing with evolution, was deemed blasphemous and Watson was given a year in prison. Watson pleaded his own case, arguing that the volume was "maliciously bought [by a police officer who came into the shop] but not maliciously sold by me," and that the jury would be committing perjury by finding him guilty. In 1833 he was imprisoned for six months for selling Hetherington's Poor Man's Guardian and in 1834 for another six months for selling Hetherington's unstamped paper, Conservative. It is said that he took his prison sentences philosophically, using the time to catch up on his reading. Watson's print shop was for many years headquarters for radicals and Chartists.
Lippmann, Walter. "Free Speech and Free Press as Factors in International Affairs." Bulletin, League of Free Nations Association, 1:1-2, March 1920. L303
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