The Progressive Era - Looking into Speech in the Media

The 1920's brought an immense amount of change from towering skyscrapers, to jazz music, commercial radio, and speak-easies. It was the time for social and cultural progression, but not the time for law progress in government. This was the era in which the highs were exciting, but the lows were very miserable all at the same time. One of the events that occurred at this time included the 1907 Patterson versus Colorado case. This was the first freedom of the press case in which a journalist was thrown in jail regarding an article he wrote that criticized the supreme court. The case is known as the first "bad" type of first amendment case and is an example of subsequent punishment, meaning the punishment towards an individual following an illegal form of speech that was published. Another event that occurred was the mutual film case, where Ohio had a ban on a war film in which the public didn't agree with the character portrayal. This was an example of prior restraint which is the prevention of media before it is published to the public. These are both situations in which the right to express oneself is broken by the government.

There are still platforms that the public use to speak out against actions that they may feel will be taken down by the government. Two sites in particular are Antiwar.com and theAmericanConservative.com, which feature government related articles that promote a conversation about these issues that have previously been feared to speak of. By providing the public with platforms such as these in which they can express their opinions in a safe space, they may be more inclined to truly share their thoughts and beliefs on the situations that face our society and country today.