THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR NEWS MEDIA AND OTHERS': 45 WORDS

What a difference 45 words can make.

The freedoms of speech and press spelled out in the 45 words of the
First Amendment protect U.S. journalists from government restraint or
reprisal for what they say or write.

As a result, with rare exceptions, throughout our history journalists
have sometimes risked reputation, circulation or ratings -- but not
their lives -- for what they have published or broadcast.

Take the White House's latest volley against Fox News. The New York
Times reported Sept. 28 that President Barack Obama, in a new Rolling
Stone magazine interview, says Fox News promotes a point of view
"ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that
has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world."

Consider that this is arguably the most powerful single individual on
the planet, saying that a specific news operation threatens the
future of the nation. So what was Fox News' response? Executives
"declined to respond" -- effectively communicating a corporate yawn
to the presidential criticism.

Contrast this situation with the plight of journalists in northern
Mexico, where the de facto authorities -- invasive and ruthless drug
cartels -- have been killing journalists, and doing so with relative impunity.

The Los Angeles Times reported recently that an estimated 30
reporters had been killed or had gone missing since a government
effort began in 2006 to break up the powerful criminal groups. The
article followed an extraordinary editorial in a newspaper in Ciudad
Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, that appealed to
the drug lords to tell it what news they don't want published. The
front-page plea followed the killing of second journalist on the paper's staff.

In the Los Angeles Times report, Mexican journalists did not refrain
from commenting but they spoke anonymously: "You love journalism. You
love the pursuit of truth. You love to perform a civic service and
inform your community. But you love your life more," one unidentified
editor said. "We don't like the silence. But it's survival."

Sadly, journalists in the United States today are not immune from
violent threats made from other nations where the "marketplace of
ideas" is, quite literally, a foreign concept.

On Sept. 15, editors at the Seattle Weekly noted in the newspaper
that "you may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the
paper this week. That's because there is no more Molly."

The item went on to explain that the cartoonist was alive but had
gone into hiding because she was targeted in June in a "fatwa" (a
call by a Yemeni Islamic cleric for deadly reprisal for an alleged
religious offense).

The reason? For drawing a controversial cartoon calling for an
"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." The cartoon was a satire on
international criticism of newspapers that published satirical
drawings of Islam's revered figure.

There's nothing in the First Amendment's free-press guarantee that
protects reporters, editors or cartoonists from criticism, either by
government figures or private citizens.

But it's deplorable that Norris or any journalist -- in the United
States, Mexico or anywhere -- should fear for his or her life just
for expressing a view or reporting news that offends someone.

You and I may agree with the president about Fox News or we may abhor
that he so openly attacked a conservative news organization for
critical reporting and commentary on his policies. But in any event,
nobody has gone to jail or into hiding just because he doesn't like
someone's particular take on the news.

What a difference just 45 words -- and the democratic society they
helped shape and sustain -- make.