ABSTRACT
A central point about the free press is not that it be fair, though it must try to be; not that it be accurate, though it must try to be that; but that it be free. Public officials, private cause groups, many lawyers, and quantifying sociologists who work by slide rule may not approve, but the fact is that the theory of the free press never was that the full truth of anything would be revealed in any one account or commentary. Whenever lawyers and journalists come together, sometimes even when they are on the same side of an issue, they tend to reach a separating point. Broadcasting steadily evolves and changes—for the better. It must do so on its own, with the help of private citizens and their groups, with the help of the printed press, tainted with self-interest though it often is—not with the help of government and its powers.
