Values of Free Expression

Free expression is a fundamental cornerstone of the United States. The right to freely express your thoughts, distastes, or even radical ideas has been given to the American people since the founding of our nation. While there are eight values of free expression, I believe that the most important one is the check on governmental power. The media's ability to check the government has become known as the "watchdog role."

Image taken from Zapiro

The watchdog role is the most important value of free expression because, without it, the other values would not exist. In theory, the government has the ability to limit the media. If the government were able to limit the free expression of the media, what would be stopping them from limiting the free expression of all citizens? The answer is simple, nothing. Therefore, with the media reporting on the government's every move, it makes it nearly impossible for the media to be silenced because the American people would not support the decision. This watchdog role ensures that the other seven values of free expression still exist.

We can take this idea of the watchdog all the way back to our nation's founding fathers. An article by James Bikales in the Harvard Political Review quoted Thomas Jefferson from a letter written in 1787. Jefferson said, "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." I find it telling that one of the most influential people in the construction of our government and a future president of the United States would rather have the media without a government. I believe this highlights the importance of the media's checks on the government.

Why does all of this matter? It can be easy to go about our daily life not thinking about the rights that we, fortunately, have as citizens of the United States. However, this passive approach to our fundamental rights is how they can be easily taken away. The media provides citizens with the ability to read and watch what our government is doing. Without the media watching our back, the government could easily begin limiting our freedoms because we often are not paying attention to them ourselves.

I hope this serves as a reminder to pay attention to your fundamental rights. While it is nice to rely on the watchdog media, it is also our duty as citizens to check and balance our government.

Links
https://www.zapiro.com/961022so
https://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/the-nations-watchdog/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716295537000010