This document summarizes and analyzes the relationships between governments and both the press and public education. Regarding the press, the author discusses debates around its independence from government influence and bias in different news sources. In education, the author examines the government's responsibility to provide it while also encouraging multiculturalism. The author argues that governments have a duty to ensure honest, unbiased information for citizens through both a free press and education that presents diverse perspectives.

1. Julie Metzler
PHI 111-160
Final
There are many standards by which one can judge the relationship between the
government and the people that inhabit the country that the government holds power over, but
due to a limited number of pages, this essay will focus on the relationships between the State and
the press, as well as the State and public education. These, in my opinion, are the most important
relationships that the people have with the government, and tie into each other, though they may
not seem like they do at first glance.
First, the relationship between the State and press is a strange one, and one that has been
debated over and argued for years. The ideal press would be completely separate from the
government, informing the citizens of what is going on in their country without the influence of
the government to taint what is released to the public. John Stuart Mill specifically addresses this
issue in his philosophical work, On Liberty. He defines the “’liberty of the press’ as one of the
securities against corrupt or tyrannical government” (Abel 480). This is true, which is why the
free, unadulterated press is a resource to be protected and valued, especially because Americans
are not aware of how biased our press is currently. Through the journal article project, I had my
eyes opened to just how sneaky our current form of press is in the United States, and how they
are inserting their own political views into each article they publish, regardless of their relation
to politics. Different news sources are in the pockets of the different political parties; for
example: Fox is primarily Republican and MSNBC primarily reports on Democratic news and
values. The Open Society Foundations, founded in 1993, aim to shape public policy to promote

2. Julie Metzler
PHI 111-160
Final
democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. They focus some
of their efforts on maintaining a press independent from any government influence. Their
website states that “A free and independent press is vital to any democracy, ensuring government
accountability and a diversity of viewpoints.” (“Media”). Open Society Foundations introduces
the idea of media imperialism, a way to rule societies by using a biased and secretive media to
control the opinions of the public. This discourages multiculturalism, and focuses on
nationalism, because the government is who is deciding what to release to the public, and what
to sweep under the rug. Joseph Raz, author of “Multiculturalism” would disagree with the
American government’s use of the media, as well as other countries’ uses to keep their citizens
complacent and under their control. The media is use to promote nationalism, the exact opposite
of what Raz wants to spread. “The idea of one nation one state was, however, responsible for
many acts of oppression that Europe has known over the past two centuries” (Abel 504). This
quote is referencing the nationalist ideas that swept, and are continuing to sweep, many different
countries; which are perpetuated by the media only reporting the political views of the
government which is in power and ignores everyone and everything not in their moral
community. This is what the Open Society Foundations are fighting against because they want to
promote “efforts that expand and protect press freedoms, increase public access to knowledge
and information, include minority voices in media, and use the arts to address pressing social
issues” (“Media”). John Locke, author of Second Treatise of Government, would say that by
being born into the societies that are ruled by a biased media, we entered into the social contract

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that gives the government the right to censor our media, and by not protesting and doing
something about the lack of a free media, despite our freedom of speech guaranteed in the
constitution, we are tacitly agreeing to live under a social contract that restricts our freedoms.
However, Locke does state that if the “rulers alter the legislature or abuse ‘the lives, liberties, or
fortunes of the people’” (Abel 445), we have the right to dissolve the contract from within due to
the abuse of power and breach in trust between the government and the people. Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, co-authors of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, would take it a step
further and say that because the media is in the pocket of the government, we have the duty to
dismantle it. “Their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social
conditions” (Abel 476). These “social conditions” are furthered by the government’s control of
the media.
The government technically has the right to influence the media, but it also has the
responsibility to report the facts to the people that they govern, something that the American
government is failing to do on a regular basis. A Washington Post online article references
quotes from Scott McClellan’s book What Happened, that shed some light on the true scope of
influence that the government has on the media, as well as how the government uses its power to
keep issues that they do not want discussed quiet. McClellan served two years as President
George W. Bush’s press secretary, and says that he “had unknowingly passed along false
information… And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in

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my doing so: Rove, Libby, Vice President Cheney, the president's chief of staff Andrew Card,
and the president himself" (Yardley). The government is stepping beyond their role as
lawmakers and are interfering with the public’s expression and understanding of what is going
on in their country. Not only does the government bend the truth and not give the whole story
about what it reports to the media, but “U.S. commercial media encourage controversy only
within a narrow range of opinion, in order to give the impression of open debate, and do not
report on news that falls outside that range” (Chomsky). This goes against Mill’s treatise, and he
argues that “the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it
is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of
being supplied” (Abel 480-481).
This relationship with the media and the State translates to the relationship between
education and the State. Marx and Engels introduced the relationship between the government
and public education in their Manifesto of the Communist Party when they stated that there
should be “free education for all children in public schools” (Abel 475). The government has the
responsibility to provide education for all its citizens. This education however, does come with
the right for government supervision if they are funding it. This is the place that the government
can be exerting its control over the minds of the country, not the media. However, like the
media, the government has the responsibility to present not only American ideals, but to also
teach multiculturalism to raise the children of the new generations to be open and ready for our
diverse and ever-changing world. The State has the responsibility to encourage multiculturalism

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(Raz), but also has the responsibility to “engage with the question of limits” (Abel 516) as stated
by Anne Phillips, author of Multiculturalism Without Culture. Phillips argues that while
multiculturalism is a good concept, we have to take it with a grain of salt, and review the extent
to which we will standby and allow certain cultures to engage in practices in the name of
maintaining multiculturalism. These are skills we should be taught in school, how to think, as
well as the facts about different cultures that we are respecting. This is where the overlap
between education and press occurs the most.
The government has the responsibility to provide free public education for all children
(Marx) but it should be extended to adults as well, because psychology has proven that humans
never stop learning (“A”) contrary to previously held beliefs that after a certain point, the brain
was too full to retain any more useful information. The media is adults’ source of information,
much as school is children’s. Therefore, the government has the responsibility to provide a
honest and accurate picture of what is occurring in the country so its citizens can form an opinion
about current affairs. The government also has the responsibility of allowing the media to remain
separate from them and not exert any type of influence over it because that could change how
people think, which expressly goes against Mill’s treatise. Both these issues are more closely
linked than they appear to be, if looked at in the right light. Providing education is the
responsibility of the State, and therefore providing an untainted media should also be the
government’s obligation, not prerogative.

6. Julie Metzler
PHI 111-160
Final
The government is entrusted with upholding the laws of our country, as well as is
given the power to govern us in accordance with the laws that have been set down by our
forbearers. However, they enter into a social contract with us, as much as we do with them, to
provide us with certain levels of information, both as children and as adults. They are more
closely monitored and held to these standards in relation to children and the school systems, but
have the responsibility to remove themselves from the governing boards of media outlets and
return it to unbiased news. It is the governments right to monitor education, since they are
paying for it, but they have no right to interfere with the media. These relationships between the
State and the press, as well as the State and public education are similar and different at the same
time, but both are integral in the successful development of our citizens and the overall good of
our country, both in the present and in the future.

7. Julie Metzler
PHI 111-160
Final
Works Cited
"A Career in the Psychology of Teaching and Learning." Psychology:Science in Action.
American Psychological Association. Web. 12 May 2015.
Abel, Donald C. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th ed.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 466-476. Print.
Abel, Donald C. "Multiculturalism." Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2012. 502-513. Print.
Abel, Donald C. "Multiculturalism without Culture." Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 514-523. Print.
Abel, Donald C. "On Liberty." Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill,
2012. 477-483. Print.
Abel, Donald C. “Second Treatise of Government.” Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 445-456. Print.
Chomsky, Noam. Ed. Otero, Carlos. Language and Politics. New York:Black Rose Books,
1988. Print.
"Media & Information." Open Society Foundations. Open Society Foundations. Web. 12 May
2015. < http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/issues/media-information>.

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PHI 111-160
Final
Yardley, Johnathan. "Culture of Deception." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 1 June
2008. Web. 12 May 2015.