The Press, Once Fierce Defenders of the First Amendment, Wheels Against Free Speech

What a contrast with the responses by the Washington Post and New York Times to pleas from government officials not to print the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

AP/Marty Lederhandler
The New York Times publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, center, in 1971 after the Supreme Court ruling permitting the publication of articles based on the Pentagon papers. AP/Marty Lederhandler

Have we gotten to the point that it’s politically necessary to defend the principle of free speech? Apparently so.

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