It has been continually debated whether the U.S. government should have the right to censor what information the general public should be allowed to access. Censorship is the exercise of analyzing the content of literature, television, media, and information at any time. I believe that the government should have the right to censor the information the public views. The general public needs to have various boundaries.
When people hear censor, or censorship, they think only of internet and media. Their first conclusion is that the government is taking away their right to be informed. The government is not “hiding” information from the public. It is simply keeping specific information for the public to protect them. For example, the U.S government is like a caring warm hearted mother attempting to keep her children away from drugs by telling them that they are bad. The children should not have to experience the drugs to realize that they are bad. Society should realize that the government is attempting to protect them from information that could hurt them. Some people cannot handle the truth and its people like that, could destroy society. It’s like the saying goes, “what we don’t know, won’t hurt us.” We need to look at the positive aspects of censorship, instead of the negative.
Society needs to have boundaries. If the government were to release important information, it would lead to a corrupt society that could eventually lead to the destruction of our sacred government. Releasing that information to the general public is lethal and dangerous. If important data from the U.S. government were to get in the wrong hands, it could be used against the nation. Censoring this data protects the U.S. from potential terrorist attacks and security crisis’. “There is no reason why newspapers should remain free to publish direct appeals to the American public from members of designated terrorist organizations. Most important, the media should not enjoy the unfettered right to publish national security, intelligence, and military secrets. These revelations can be so damaging to national security that sanctions should be enforced not just against government officials who leak secrets, but also against the journalists and media outlets that disclose them. Congress must clarify the law so that publishing government secrets that endanger our national security and our wartime efforts will be severely punished. American newspapers should foster a free debate on government policies, not act as agents of enemy sabotage.” This direct quote from The Washington Times helps support the denied release of private government information from a journalist’s perspective on the issue.
In cases dealing with the first amendment- “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievance.” to the United States Supreme Court