First Amendment Guerillas: Formative Years of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Abstract

Fueled by bitter disputes over the issuance of subpoenas to reporters and operating in the contentious climate of the Watergate Era, an innovative effort in 1970 to aggressively defend the interests of working journalists gave rise to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Governed by working reporters in Washington, the Committee confronted former President Richard Nixon when he attempted to remove documents from the public domain. Shifts in the political climate, deep divisions over a media response to Grenada, and a change in leadership style brought a retreat from “guerilla” tactics in the mid-1980s. The Committee remains a reliable defender of journalists' rights and a bridge between the working press and a First Amendment Bar created during this period. Feverish activity, inner tensions, and confrontations with both publishers and public officials mark the early years of the RCFP as a significant time in the history of the American press, and also reflect a time of high drama, high stakes, and zealous actors in American political and media history. “Basically, the idea was to fight back, and if you couldn't do it nicely, you did it through warfare. I'm the guerilla, and if you can't get it one way you can get it another. And that's what we did.” Jack C. Landau, executive director 1974–85, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.