LIBERTY _and the_ NEWS BY WALTER LIPPMANN NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC. In writing this tract I have dared to believe that many things were possible because of the personal example offered to all who practice journalism by Mr. C. P. Scott, for over forty-five years editor-in-chief of the _Manchester Guardian_. In the light of his career it cannot seem absurd or remote to think of freedom and truth in relation to the news. Two of the essays in this volume, “What Modern Liberty Means” and “Liberty and the News” were published originally in the _Atlantic Monthly_. I wish to thank Mr. Ellery Sedgwick for the encouragement he gave me while writing them, and for permission to reprint them in this volume. W. L. New York City. January 1, 1920. CONTENTS PAGE Journalism and the Higher Law 3 What Modern Liberty Means 19 Liberty and the News 69 JOURNALISM AND THE HIGHER LAW Volume 1, Number 1, of the first American newspaper was published in Boston on September 25, 1690. It was called _Publick Occurrences_. The second issue did not appear because the Governor and Council suppressed it. They found that Benjamin Harris, the editor, had printed “reflections of a very high nature.”[1] Even to-day some of his reflections seem very high indeed. In his prospectus he had written: “That something may be done toward the Curing, or at least the Charming of that Spirit of Lying, which prevails amongst us, wherefore nothing shall be entered, but what we have reason to believe is true, repairing to the best fountains for our Information. And when there appears any material mistake in anything that is collected, it shall be corrected in the next. Moreover, the Publisher of these Occurrences is willing to engage, that whereas, there are many False Reports, maliciously made, and spread among us, if any well-minded person will be at the pains to trace any such false Report, so far as to find out and Convict the First Raiser of it, he will in this Paper (unless just Advice be given to the contrary) expose the Name of such Person, as A malicious Raiser of a false Report. It is suppos’d that none will dislike this Proposal, but such as intend to be guilty of so villainous a Crime.”