President John F. Kennedy on the Responsibility of the Press to Keep the People Fully and Accurately Informed

“With the vast freedom enjoyed by the press of this country has come a great responsibility to the public, a responsibility which cannot be minimized. To carry out this responsibility, the press must constantly exert every effort to present to the American people full and factual information.”

President John F. Kennedy had a particular interest in the First Amendment and freedom of the press. Perhaps it was due in part from his personal experience as a reporter. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he reported for the Chicago Herald-American, for whom, in 1945, he covered the United Nations Conference held in San Francisco and the election that ousted Winston Churchill from the prime minister’s post. In any event, he had not been in the White House much more than three months when he spoke on the subject to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, in a speech known to history as the “President and the Press” speech.

In it, he stated: “Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed – and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian law-maker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment – the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution – not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’ – but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.”

Eight months later, he amplified on these remarks in a letter to the publisher of Chicago’s American, an afternoon newspaper, and interestingly, a successor paper to the one JFK had worked for in 1945.

Typed letter signed as President, on White House letterhead, two pages, Washington, January 5, 1962, to Stuart List, publisher of Chicago American. In it, as in the speech, Kennedy stresses the responsibility the press has to keep the public informed, and to provide it with complete and accurate information. "It is with pleasure that I send congratulations to Chicago's American on the dedication of its new building. This structure, and the modern plant it houses is eloquent testimony to the strength and prosperity of our free press. We can all feel pride in the skill, intelligence and resourcefulness of the publishers, writers, editors, and the many thousands who are responsible for producing our nation's newspapers each day. With the vast freedom enjoyed by the press of this country has come a great responsibility to the public, a responsibility which cannot be minimized. To carry out this responsibility, the press must constantly exert every effort to present to the American people full and factual information. The history of our nation is a tribute to an informed citizenry – one which is capable of making rapid strides in progress at home and able to rally in times of world crises. The complexity of world problems today makes it imperative that we are well informed and understand our role in world affairs. I am grateful to Chicago's American for the role it has played in helping to inform the people. It is my hope that it will continue to disseminate information wisely and with full awareness of the responsibility and opportunity which it has."

This is the first letter of Kennedy relating to freedom of the press, and the responsibilities of the press, that we can recall seeing. It is a worthy supplement to his famous speech.