Post by RS Davis on Jul 11, 2004 11:46:05 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]by James W. Harris[/glow]
The good news: American's support for First Amendment freedoms -- deeply shaken by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- has dramatically rebounded back to pre-9/11 levels.
The bad news: Fully thirty percent of Americans think the First Amendment "goes too far." Forty percent think the press has too much freedom. And huge numbers of Americans don't know much about the First Amendment.
These findings, and more, come from the annual State of the First Amendment survey, conducted by the First Amendment Center, an organization which seeks to preserve First Amendment freedoms through education.
"The 2004 survey found that just 30 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement, ‘The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,’ with 65 percent disagreeing. The nation was split evenly, 49 percent to 49 percent, on that same question two years ago, in the survey following the ‘9/11’ attacks,” said Gene Policinski, acting director of the First Amendment Center.
“Despite the ongoing war on terrorism worldwide and regular warnings from authorities about domestic attacks, a significant majority of Americans continue to support a free and open society,” Policinski said. “Still, having about one in three Americans say they have too much freedom is a disturbing figure.”
The survey found that large numbers of Americans would restrict speech that might offend racial or religious groups and would restrict music that might offend anyone. Also, about four in 10 respondents said that the press in America has too much freedom.
Other findings:
* Only 1% of Americans could name “petition” as one of the specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Only one of the five freedoms was identified by more than half of those surveyed: 58% named “speech.” For the other rights: religion -- 17%; press --15%; assembly -- 10%.
* About 58% said that the current amount of government regulation of entertainment programming on television is “about right;” 16% said there is “too much,” while 21% said there is “too little.”
* 50% said they believe Americans have too little access to information about the federal government’s efforts to combat terrorism -- up from 40% in 2002.
* About 53% oppose a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.
* Only 28% rated America’s education system as doing an “excellent” or “good” job of teaching students about First Amendment freedoms.
(Source: The State of the First Amendment 2004 survey:
www.firstamendmentcenter.org )[/b]
[glow=red,2,300]by James W. Harris[/glow]
[shadow=red,left,300]Support for First Amendment on Post-911 Rebound
[/shadow]The good news: American's support for First Amendment freedoms -- deeply shaken by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- has dramatically rebounded back to pre-9/11 levels.
The bad news: Fully thirty percent of Americans think the First Amendment "goes too far." Forty percent think the press has too much freedom. And huge numbers of Americans don't know much about the First Amendment.
These findings, and more, come from the annual State of the First Amendment survey, conducted by the First Amendment Center, an organization which seeks to preserve First Amendment freedoms through education.
"The 2004 survey found that just 30 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement, ‘The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,’ with 65 percent disagreeing. The nation was split evenly, 49 percent to 49 percent, on that same question two years ago, in the survey following the ‘9/11’ attacks,” said Gene Policinski, acting director of the First Amendment Center.
“Despite the ongoing war on terrorism worldwide and regular warnings from authorities about domestic attacks, a significant majority of Americans continue to support a free and open society,” Policinski said. “Still, having about one in three Americans say they have too much freedom is a disturbing figure.”
The survey found that large numbers of Americans would restrict speech that might offend racial or religious groups and would restrict music that might offend anyone. Also, about four in 10 respondents said that the press in America has too much freedom.
Other findings:
* Only 1% of Americans could name “petition” as one of the specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Only one of the five freedoms was identified by more than half of those surveyed: 58% named “speech.” For the other rights: religion -- 17%; press --15%; assembly -- 10%.
* About 58% said that the current amount of government regulation of entertainment programming on television is “about right;” 16% said there is “too much,” while 21% said there is “too little.”
* 50% said they believe Americans have too little access to information about the federal government’s efforts to combat terrorism -- up from 40% in 2002.
* About 53% oppose a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.
* Only 28% rated America’s education system as doing an “excellent” or “good” job of teaching students about First Amendment freedoms.
(Source: The State of the First Amendment 2004 survey:
www.firstamendmentcenter.org )[/b]
