Analysis of "Free Press/Free Voyeurs" by Clay Calvert

Essay by hfogg05College, UndergraduateA, March 2007

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

In this unit we have discussed two articles that feature very definite ideas on personal freedom and public responsibility. “Free Press, Free Voyeurs?” by Clay Calvert discusses ideas mainly on public responsibility but ultimately is based on personal freedom. The media and public, as a whole, are discussed in how they correspond with each other in society. The article “Where Would We Be without Our Rights?” by Kenneth Cole discusses personal freedoms through the use of picture advertisements. This is directly from a Kenneth Cole catalogue from 1998 in which the company was using our thoughts on our rights to sell their product. Both of these articles have very definite ideas on personal freedoms and public responsibility which show that our own freedoms have become our responsibility.

Clay Calvert’s article is based on our personal freedoms and how it relates to our public responsibility. Clay Calvert discusses several times that the head of the courts just as a judge or a judge of the Supreme Court hold much more power than anyone else and this power should be limited in some form.

Clay Calvert believes that we deserve what we are guaranteed which is our rights and nothing more or less. “Courts too must adopt the right-to-know claim if the voyeurism value is to be privileged under the first amendment.” This quote here from Calvert shows that the courts only have the power that is given to them and written under the law. Calvert believes that this should be very strict and that the courts should only use what laws are given to them and nothing more. Whoever holds the power will interpret the current rights we have.

Calvert discusses the media and press a lot in this article where there freedoms and jurisdictions come under scrutiny. The press...