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Justice Potter Stewart in his opinion in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971:
In the absence of governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the area of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry... Without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.
It was Justice Potter in a 1974 speech who explained that the "primary purpose" of the First Amendment was "to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches" but that was just a personal opinion. We are guaranteed a press free from government censorship when it wants to print material that casts the government in an unfavorable light but not a true press. And preventing the press from casting the government or some other entity in a more favorable light than it deserves is apparently a bit harder to guarantee.
