Sentinel Under Siege traces the evolution of the media in the United States and its capacity to examine and regulate itself, from its earliest colonial roots to the modern explosion of digital technology. Once the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1791, the press became the first and only enterprise explicitly protected by the United States Constitution. This book is concerned with the legal content given to freedom of the press by the Supreme Court, and the fitful attempts of media criticism - both intramural and external - to build a greater sense of responsibility among the practitioners. Stanley Flink is concerned less with the people's right to know than with the people's need to know. Only a competent, responsible press - whatever its means of distribution - can perform the role of watchdog over official abuse of power, business corruption, and political distortions. But the acquisition of so many newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting facilities by corporate conglomerates threatens a new kind of prior restraint on an independent press - the conflicts of interest; the power of advertising; the unspoken self-censorship of reporters and editors, print or electronic, based on the perceived predilections of their employers; and the financial interests of related companies.

* Introduction * In Search of a Role * The Press and the Law * Malice Without Wit * Pomp and Provenance * Practicing Freedom * The Limits of Liberty * Crafting a Constitution * Safeguarding Liberty * Enlarging the Fourth Estate * The Bloodiest War * The Bottom Lines * Turning Away * The First and the Fourteenth * The News Business * Toward Professionalism * Trash and Flash * The Is and the Ought * The Critics * Fear and Loathing * The Weight of Obligations * The Paradox of Self-Government * Libel and Liability * Free as the Air * Training the Watchdogs * Epilogue: Pathfinding