This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 24, 2023. Attempts to silence writers are as eternal, and as futile, as attempts to ban books themselves. In a couple of recent high-profile instances, we have seen author Salman Rushdie physically attacked and Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling become • Read More »
Archives: First Amendment
The late editor of The Nation, the dangers of alcohol, the novel of a friend, and the improbable end of education as we know it: newsletter, February 3, 2023
February 3, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, First Amendment, history, newsletter, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, February 3, 2023. During my academic career, I was fortunate enough to be able to write and publish several textbooks. Writing textbooks was a central focus of many of my efforts, and I enjoyed it immensely. One of the things I enjoyed • Read More »
The Morgan’s extraordinary librarian, the origins of Annika, and the words of John F. Kennedy: newsletter, June 3, 2022
June 3, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, freedom of the press, history, newsletter, writers.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,234) on Friday, June 3, 2022. In recent days I have had the opportunity to take a look at lists of words commonly used as slang a century ago. The lists have been both interesting and instructive. Many of the phrases in these list are • Read More »
The disappearance of an inventor, the Supreme Court doesn’t decide, free speech on campus, and continuing giveaways: newsletter, April 29, 2022
April 29, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, freedom of speech, newsletter, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,234) on Friday, April 29, 2022. A popular myth that animates much of our political life is that the U.S. Supreme Court decides an issue. The justices, in their collective wisdom or ignorance, may make a ruling, but they rarely if ever decide an issue. • Read More »
American Library Association’s list of “most challenged books” for 2020
June 1, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, journalism.Chances are, there’s a group in your community that wants to dictate what books you and your children can read. They often do this by telling public libraries what they should not put on the shelves. Most libraries resist this kind of pressure, and the American Library Association keeps track of these challenges. Here is • Read More »
Hugh Walpole, reactions to masks and COVID-19, First Amendment violations, and an international watercolor conspiracy: newsletter, July 3, 2020
July 5, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, July 3, 2020. An international cabal of industrialists and watercolorists has met in secret (not sure when, probably at night; not sure where, probably Switzerland) and decided that July will be International Watercolor Month. I will continue my investigations and report my • Read More »
Yes, people are still trying to ban books. And they should be opposed.
September 19, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, journalism.You can shield yourself from ideas that make you uncomfortable or that you disagree with. You may be able, to some extent, to limit the exposure that the young people in your care have to those ideas. But you cannot shield your community from the things you disagree with. That’s called censorship, and in any practical • Read More »
The purpose of great literature: to make people comfortable
February 14, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, journalism.That’s what school officials in Duluth, Minnesota (and a few other places, unfortunately) would have you believe. The school system in Duluth is the latest to remove To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the required reading list for ninth graders. The reason they give: the language used in these books • Read More »
Artist Daniel Moore announces latest national championship painting
February 7, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, sports.Moore discovered a gold mine for his artwork in 1979 when he produced “The Goal Line Stand,” a photo-realistic oil painting of the moments when Alabama prevented Penn State from scoring in the Sugar Bowl.
Alabama vs. Georgia, 50+ years ago: The Saturday Evening Post-Wally Butts-Bear Bryant libel case
January 8, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, Home, journalism, law, reporting.More than 50 years ago, the Alabama-Georgia matchup resulted, not in a national championship, but in a legal ruling that expanded the First Amendment protections we now enjoy.
J. K. Rowling on freedom of expression
September 7, 2017 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, freedom of speech, journalism.J.K. Rowling has a point of view: Intolerance of alternative viewpoints is spreading to places that make me, a moderate and a liberal, most uncomfortable. Only last year, we saw an online petition to ban Donald Trump from entry to the U.K. It garnered half a million signatures. Just a moment. I find almost • Read More »
Seeing Suffrage: Planning the 1913 Washington Woman’s Suffrage Parade
March 11, 2016 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: Alice Paul, First Amendment.March: Women’s History Month Plans for a gigantic suffrage parade along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in 1913 began as soon as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns convince the National American Woman Suffrage Association to put them in charge of its Congressional Committee in late November 1912. Paul and Burns, who had been friends since • Read More »
The First Amendment today
March 8, 2016 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, history, journalism, journalism education.The nation seems to be in a state of perpetual war, and during times of crisis, individual freedoms are always in danger. Professor Dwight Teeter of the University of Tennessee discusses the state and strength of First Amendment freedoms today.
The First Amendment, Luther Baldwin and the Alien and Sedition Acts
December 21, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, Home, journalism education.University of Tennessee professor Dwight Teeter discusses the case of Luther Baldwin, a New Jersey man who was prosecuted under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Baldwin became a symbol of Federalist intolerance during the 1800 presidential election.
This video is part of the Tennessee Journalism Series and was produced and edited by Jim Stovall.
How we got the First Amendment (video)
December 17, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, history, Home, journalism, journalism education, teaching journalism.In this two-and-a-half minute video, Dr. Dwight Teeter explains some of the political maneuvering that occurred to get the an amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech into the hotly-debated Constitution in the late 1780s. The freedoms protected by the amendment — religion, speech, press, assembly and petition — were not foremost in the minds of the Founding Fathers. Discussion questions are included with this video.
Three Dead Americans: Life’s famous World War II photo
November 29, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: Civil War, First Amendment, history, Home, photojournalism.Americans waited nearly two years before the news media printed a combat photograph that showed a dead U.S. serviceman. The reasons for that wait were that such producing such photos are too shocking for the friends and families of the deceased and that the public’s morale and support for the war might be diminished.
The story of the Life magazine photo is an interesting one and demonstrates the controversy surrounding photographing the deceased, particularly those who have died in combat.
Below is a set of photographs of soldiers killed in battle during the Civil War.
Tennessee Journalism Series: Writing Like a Journalist
May 24, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, teaching journalism.Journalists write for a living. They use words precisely and efficiently. They present accurate, verified information in a way that a mass audience will understand it by reading or hearing it only once.
Tennessee Journalism Series: Going Online
May 24, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, teaching journalism.Designed by the people who helped create and maintain the Interscholastic Online News Network (ISONN), Going Online presents brief, practical lessons in the journalism of today and tomorrow. It shows teaches and students how they can practice journalism on a daily or hourly basis, something they were unable to do before the advent of the World Wide Web.
Tennessee Journalism Series: Feature Writing
May 24, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, teaching journalism.Feature Writing presents the basic concepts and techniques of feature writing for students who want to explore this vital part of journalism. It is brief and designed to be highly accessible to the beginning student.
Tennessee Journalism Series: The Devil and His Due
May 24, 2013 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, First Amendment, teaching journalism.Many of the things that happened first during the Penny Press era have become the staples of today’s journalism: the dominance of non-partisan news; the emphasis on speed; new areas of reporting, including sports reporting; an expansion of readership to include working classes. The list could go on. Much that is on that list began with James Gordon Bennett.