Federal Reporter

“ A daily reading of responsible newspapers quickly discloses abundant examples of careful selectivity in the release of information by government officials, can scarcely be denied. Indeed scholars, journalists, and the American public are becoming increasingly dependent upon the release of information by the federal government for their interpretation of recent historical and current events. ”

“ A point is made of the fact, however, that the Associated Press is the largest of the news agencies, ranking 'in the forefront in public reputation and esteem' and constituting 'the chief single source of news for the American press, universally agreed to be of great importance.' A unique value is said to attach to Associated Press news reports, growing out of the fact that they are furnished by an agency com osed of and controlled by newspapers representing nearly every shade of opinion and geographical section of the nation. ”

“ The National Journal is loquacious as a parrot in its denunciations of the anticipated ‘proscription.’ If that pensioned press can torture a salutary change in the administration of the general government, more or less applicable to all departments, and to official agents generally, into a proscription for opinion's sake, its powers are considerably greater than we or the public have hitherto given it credit for. As well may the people be charged with proscription for having removed an unfaithful executive and elected another. ”

“ The findings of the District Court, which this court has not modified, criticised, or overruled, establish beyond cavil that, despite the fact that AP was early in the field and has grown to great size, many other reporting agencies have been established, and grown in the United States, two of which, UP and INS, are now comparable to AP 'in size, scope of coverage and efficiency.' Additional agencies which furnish substantial news reporting services in the nation total between twenty and thirty. ”

“ The Associated Press is engaged ostensibly in the collection, sale, and distribution of news dispatches for such of the newspaper press of the country as find favor in its sight. It has numerous agents in the towns and cities of the United States, employed to send dispatches to its headquarters at New York. ”

“ The Associated Press also has correspondents everywhere in the world, most of whom are paid for what news they furnish, while others at important news centers are regularly employed to gather and send news to the association. To facilitate the handling of the news, the Associated Press has divided the country into four divisions with a central office and a superintendent in each; and in these divisions there is a bureau at every important news center with a correspondent who is responsible for all the news in his district of the division. ”

“ The press, in fact, 'serves one of the most vital of all general interests: the dissemination of news from as may different sources, and with as many different facets and colors as is possible. That interest is closely akin to, if indeed it is not the same as, the interest protected by the First Amendment; it presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection. ”

“ The Act prohibits any federal agency from adopting regulations which impose paperwork requirements on the public unless the information is not available to the agency from another source within the Federal Government, and the agency must formulate a plan for tabulating the information in a useful manner. Agencies are also required to minimize the burden on the public to the extent practicable. ”

“ In effect, the vast majority of presidential proclamations and executive orders must be published, particularly those prescribing a penalty. The statute also indicates that (1) “documents or classes of documents that the President may determine from time to time have general applicability and legal effect” and (2) “documents or classes of documents that may be required so to be published by Act of Congress” shall also be reproduced in the Federal Register. [10] In fact, Presidents have elected to publish some other kinds of directives, which are discussed below. ”

“ Under the FOIA, the public can obtain records from any Federal agency, subject to the exemptions enacted by the Congress to protect information that must be held in confidence for the Government to function effectively or for other purposes. (b) FOIA requesters are seeking a service from the Federal Government and should be treated as such. ”

“ If a president's message, or an inaugural address, or any other public document of voluminous character is to be given out, it is obvious that the newspapers concerned cannot wait for telegraphic reports of its contents. By way of saving time and telegraphic expense, the document is delivered to the Associated Press, and copies of it are sent to all the newspapers concerned, with a strict limitation upon the hour of its publication. Until that hour comes no newspaper in the association is privileged to print it or in any way, by reference or otherwise, to reveal any part of its contents. ”

“ The evidence respecting them is seen by every one, and is in its nature conclusive.
In excluding various articles from the mail, the object of Congress has not been to interfere with the freedom of the press, or with any other rights of the people ”

“ During the Vice Presidential and Presidential review period, communications with any person not employed by the Federal Government relating to the substance of the regulatory action under review and directed to the Advisors or their staffs or to the staff of the Vice President shall be in writing and shall be forwarded by the recipient to the affected agency (ies) for inclusion in the public docket (s) . When the communication is not in writing, such Advisors or staff members shall inform the outside party that the matter is under review and that any comments should be submitted in writing. ”

“ It is not, of course, always the case that information lawfully acquired by the press is known, or accessible, to others. But where the government has made certain information publicly available, it is highly anomalous to sanction persons other than the source of its release. ”

“ Whenever any movement is on foot for the securing of legislation desired by the predatory interests, or when restraining legislation is threatened, news bureaus are established at Washington, and these news bureaus furnish to such papers, as will use them, free reports, daily or weekly as the case may be, from the national capitol—reports which purport to give general news, but which in fact contain arguments in support of the schemes which the bureaus are organized to advance. ”

“ The Special News Agency were, so to speak, wholesale dealers in news. You bought the reports of Ministers' speeches or out-of-the-way lawsuits by the column. It was the same principle that governed the Easterham Gazette and its columns of stereo. No newspaper could afford a sufficiently large staff of reporters to cover everything. So the Special News Agency had its corps of verbatim shorthand writers, its representatives in every small village, and in every police-court. ”

“ The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) generally requires agencies, in exercising that solemn responsibility, to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking to provide public notice of proposed regulations under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, allow interested parties an opportunity to comment, consider and respond to significant comments, and publish final regulations in the Federal Register.
Agencies may clarify existing obligations through non-binding guidance documents, which the APA exempts from notice-and-comment requirements. ”

“ It is true, however, that when a well-known diplomat from another country demanded recently that our State Department repudiate certain newspaper attacks on his colleague it was unnecessary for us to reply that this Administration was not responsible for the press, for the press had already made it clear that it was not responsible for this Administration. ”

“ The acts of Congress dealing with the press are not numerous, as each state has for the most part its own legislation on the subject, dealing generally with, among other matters, the registration of newspapers, the monopoly of the state printer, and the right of giving the truth in evidence in defence to proceedings for libel. ”

“ It is because he acts as the purveyor of truthful, accurate and verifiable news to the press that the conscientious and successful counsel on public relations is looked upon with favor by the journalist. And in the Code of Ethics recently183 adopted in Washington by a national editors’ conference, his function is given acknowledgment. Just as in the case of the other mediums for the dissemination of information, mediums which range from the lecture platform to the radio, the press, too, looks to the public relations counsel for information about the causes he represents. ”

“ If the Associated Press will adopt and use our simplified forms, and thus spread them to the ends of the earth, covering the whole spacious planet with them as with a garden of flowers, our difficulties are at an end.
Every day of the three hundred and sixty-five the only pages of the world’s countless newspapers that are read by all the human beings and angels and devils that can read, are these pages that are built out of Associated Press despatches. ”

“ Every newspaper is interested in procuring news of happenings in its vicinity, and maintains a staff for that purpose. Such news may have some value to newspapers published in cities outside the locality of the occurrence. I assume that if two publishers agreed that each should supply a transcript of all reports he received to the other, and conditioned their agreement that neither would abuse the privilege accorded, by giving away or selling what was furnished under the joint arrangement, there could be no objection under the Sherman Act. ”

“ The Associated Press is in essence the common agent of about 1300 newspapers in the various cities throughout the country for the interchange of ews which each paper collects in its own territory, and for the gathering, editing, and distributing of news which these member papers cannot collect single-handed, and which requires their pooled resources. ”

“ You are an Associated Press newspaper, and your honor is definitely bound up with that of the organization which serves you. You sell Associated Press news to the public. If the Associated Press news is false news, you are selling false news to the public, and you are refusing the public any opportunity to judge a most serious, a carefully documented charge that this news is false. It is true that you published my telegram to the President in one edition of your paper. ”

“ The political reporter is he who begins at the foot of the ladder when he reports the actual facts at a ward meeting. The political correspondent is he who has run the gamut of ward meetings, primaries, Assembly district, Senate district, and Congress district conventions, city conventions, county conventions, State conventions, and national conventions, and who builds his articles to his newspaper on his information of the situation in the State or nation, based upon circumstances and facts arising out of all of the aforesaid conventions. ”

“ If security clearances cannot be obtained promptly, personnel in the Executive Branch having the necessary clearances may be temporarily assigned to assist the court. If a proceeding is required to be recorded and an official court reporter having the necessary security clearance is unavailable, the court may request the court security officer or the attorney for the government to have a cleared reporter from the Executive Branch designated to act as reporter in the proceedings. ”

“ It is insisted that the Associated Press is in substance the press itself, that the membership consists solely of persons who own and operate newspapers, that the news is gathered solely for publication in the newspapers of members. ”

“ Reporting requirement– Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter for three years, the Secretary of State , in consultation with the Secretary of Defense , shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees an unclassified report, with a classified annex as necessary, that addresses the requirements specified in subsection (a) .
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105) . ”

“ If these young men had investigated before they spoke, they would never have said what they did; for if there is a clean thing in the United States it is the Associated Press. The personnel of the service is made up as a whole of newspaper men of the finest type; throughout the profession employment in its service is regarded as an evidence of character and reliability. No general policy of suppression or distortion could be carried on without the knowledge and indeed the active connivance of these men, stationed at strategic points all over the world. ”

“ In organizing its news collecting, the newspaper only takes advantage of information filed for various official purposes by many different persons in no way connected with the newspaper. Policemen, firemen, sheriffs, coroners, and practically all officials of local, state, and national governments, as well as doctors, lawyers, and merchants are all unintentionally serving as reporters of news. ”