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90 U. Colo. L. Rev. 499 (2019)
Press Speakers and the First Amendment Rights of Listeners

handle is hein.journals/ucollr90 and id is 533 raw text is: PRESS SPEAKERS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF LISTENERS RONNELL ANDERSEN JONES* INTRODUCTION A wave of scholarly and judicial attention to the rights of listeners has moved First Amendment jurisprudence, in at least some doctrinal subareas, to consider how the Constitution might value and protect audiences of speech and not just pro- ducers of it. But this inquiry has largely focused on contexts where the rights of the speakers and listeners diverge. Less discussed, but equally important, are First Amendment dy- namics in which speaker and listener interests align, and in which the speaker needs additional protections to adequately safeguard the fuller First Amendment relationship. The most notable of these dynamics is the constitutionally symbiotic re- lationship between the institutional speakers of the press and their public audiences. This Article explores American press freedom through the lens of speaker-listener relationships. It argues that the unique features of this particular First Amendment partnership should lead to greater appreciation of the press as a special in- stitutional speaker and to greater protection for newsgathering performed on behalf of listeners. Part I briefly describes the developing doctrine of listener rights, exploring the protections courts and commentators have argued are warranted for those who have interests in receiving speech. It notes the ways in which the recent debates over the doctrine have been motivated by instances where the interests of listeners differ from those of the speaker and examines how the doctrine must also apply in instances where speaker and * Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Chair & Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah and Affiliated Fellow, Yale Law School Information Society Project. The author wishes to thank the participants of the 2018 Rothgerber Constitutional Law Conference at the University of Colorado Law School for their valuable feedback on this Article and Rebekah Keller, Angie Shewan, and Erin Reid for their research assistance.

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