A Letter to the Publisher

By Jack McPherson
[email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

Dear Mr. Smith:

         Will be looking forward to the next issue of the Enterprise, hope your cleanup is coming along as smoothly as can be anticipated.
         I was driven to write you by the death of Princess Diana. This was a tragic event. Tragic events these days always imply a crisis and crises demand public policy solutions.
         In this case it is clear that we must have laws against overly aggressive reporting. The so-called journalists who pursued Diana's car were clearly exceeding any decent bounds.
         When our Founding Fathers established the First Amendment, they could not envision the carnage that could be caused by mechanized presshounds, nor the invasion of privacy made possible by specialized equipment such as overly powerful telephoto lenses.
         Any telephoto lens of 500mm or over clearly has no value except to invade privacy and should be banned except for government agencies. A Presidential Commission should be established to consider limits on film speeds and number of exposures per roll of film.
         Legitimate reporters will welcome, not fear, any such laws. After all, it is only in the coverage of personalities and celebrities that the press shows the slightest evidence of aggressiveness. Mainstream journalists who largely repackage and publish press conference handouts will not be affected in the slightest.
         These are common sense ideas, not extremist proposals. If the press will agree to them now, it may avoid the need for licensing reporters later.

Jack McPherson
[email protected]

Previous to return to the previous article, or Index to return to The Libertarian Enterprise, Number 33, September, 1997.