Existing comment:
1930
With Radio You Are There:
By the 1930s, radio had become more than an entertainment novelty. Newspapers and magazines no longer had a monopoly on news. By 1938, eight of 10 American homes had a radio. Most of the people working in radio news in the early days were former newspaper reporters and editors. With radio, one could be at the scene of the breaking news. As network news was broadcast directly into living rooms, a vast nation became one.
A First Amendment Challenge:
In a landmark 1931 ruling, the US Supreme Court said that a Minnesota gag law allowing limits on the press was unconstitutional. Minneapolis publisher Jay Near's scandal sheet, The Saturday Press, had accused local officials of being involved with gangsters. Officials used the law -- which called publication of any "malicious, scandalous and defamatory" newspapers a "nuisance" -- to bar Near from further publication. |