🚀 go-pugleaf

Peg Blanchard, author of "Revolutionary Sparks: Freedom of
Expression in Modern America," will lead Society of
Professional Journalists members and guests in a discussion
about the love-hate relationship of the press and government
in wartime in the next SPJ program, scheduled at 7 PM,
Monday October 12, in the Park Ridge clubhouse on NC 54 in
Durham.  Light refreshments will be served.  Blanchard's
book, published by Oxford University Press, has been
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

"The press has voluntarily suppressed information for years
to cooperate with the government," said Blanchard, a
professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina.
Several factors influence how the media behave in such
times; the popularity of the war, how successful it is, for
example.

When Gen. Douglas MacArthur lied about American casualty
figures in World War II, the press went along meekly.  When
US troops fled a losing battle, reporters used the
government's language and called it a strategic withdrawal,
not a retreat.  The cozy relationship was not new.  World
War I was the same.

The Korean War marked the beginning of change.  Then the
press started fighting about censorship issues.  Korea,
Blanchard said, and Vietnam became more like the historical
fight -- the more natural tension -- between government
sources and news reporters that was lively and strong during
the Civil War and much earlier.  What has happened to that
relationship since Vietnam, and what will happen next time?

An inspection of the speech and press of the 1780s and 1790s
reveal that "it was, above all else, intrusive, robust, and
controversial," Blanchard writes in her book.  "Information
was provided to the American people, and they participated
in making decisions for the government."  Free speech and
debate led to changes in policies as the people had wished.

"In the 1980s, both the government and the people seemed to
have forgotten that intimate relationship," Blanchard
writes.  "Instead, there were attacks on the First Amendment
and on the principles for which freedom of expression has
come to stand, simply because they are politically expedient
or personally reprehensible for certain members of society."

Members of SPJ and any interested parties are invited to
hear Blanchard speak.  Park Ridge apartments are on the
north side of NC 54 just east of NC 751 and the Woodcroft
development and shopping center.  From Raleigh and the east,
take I-40 to exit 276 (Fayetteville Road).  Turn right at
the exit, then left at the first light (NC 54).  Drive 1.1
miles to the Park Ridge entrance on your right.  Follow
signs to the office.  The clubhouse is next to the pool.

From Chapel Hill and the west, take I-40 and exit 273 (NC
54).  Turn left at the exit onto NC 54.  Follow 54 about 2.5
miles to Park Ridge, the first left past the Woodcroft
shopping center.

((The above is excerpted from The Front Page, Newsletter of
the Triangle Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional
Journalists.  Call Jonathan Miller, chapter president, at
876-8814 for further information)).