1971
In 1971, the Pentagon Papers, a secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1967, were leaked to Neil Sheehan of The New York Times by former State Department official Daniel Ellsberg. The papers revealed, among other things, that the government had deliberately expanded its role in the war all while President Lyndon B. Johnson had been promising not to do so. The document increased the credibility gap for the U.S. government, and hurt efforts by the Nixon administration to fight the ongoing war.
The New York Times began publishing excerpts as a series of articles on June 13, 1971 and controversy and lawsuits quickly followed. President Richard Nixon was incensed by series, telling National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger that “People have gotta be put to the torch for this sort of thing.” After initially failing to get The New York Times to stop publishing, Attorney General John Mitchell and President Nixon obtained a federal court injunction that they cease publication of excerpts. On June 18, 1971, The Washington Post began publishing its own series, having obtained portions of the papers from Ellsberg. That same day, the Post received a call from the Assistant Attorney General, William Rehnquist, requesting they stop publishing.
The U.S. Supreme Court merged both cases into New York Times Co. v. United States. On June 30, 1971 the Supreme Court held in a 6–3 decision that the injunctions were unconstitutional prior restraints and that the government had not met the burden of proof required. The ruling made it possible for The New York Times and The Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment. This is generally considered a victory for an extensive reading of the First Amendment, but its decision did not void the Espionage Act or give the press unlimited freedom to publish classified documents.
© The New York Times
View the archived papers in its entirety here.
1980
CNN was the first cable news channel to break news on the 9/11 terrorist attacks with anchor Carol Lin delivering the first public report. CNN starts a live broadcast about 3 minutes after the first tower is hit. CNN stays on the air for an uninterrupted 93 hours––the longest news event in history, almost doubling John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
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1996
Sean Hannity is hired by Roger Ailes to co-host Hannity & Colmes with Alan Colmes. Hannity soon gets his own show in which he promotes various conspiracy theories, such as birtherism, claims that the murder of Seth Rich was part of a conspiracy, and falsehoods about Hillary Clinton’s health. According to Forbes, by 2018 Hannity had become one of the most-watched hosts in cable news and most-listened-to hosts in talk radio, due in part to his closeness and access to Trump. Hannity is extremely close to President Trump, speaking with him most nights and is referred to as “the shadow Chief of Staff.”
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