When print periodicals first emerged from the coffeehouses in England in the seventeenth century, they saw their role as investigatory. For that we would have to go undercover. These early efforts at investigative work became part of the reason the press was granted its constitutional freedom. And in the years to come, as conflict between a protected press and government institutions increased, it was this watchdog role that the Supreme Court fell back on time and again to reaffirm the press's central role in American society. With support from state and federal legislatures during the 1960s and 1970s, the press gained greater access through the Freedom of Information Act and so-called sunshine laws, which provided public access to many documents and activities of the government.
Journalists continue to see the watchdog role as central to their work.
Yet its existence is not guaranteed, and in some ways its health is threatened. Dunne was half kidding, but the maxim has stuck. Unfortunately, the notion that the press is there to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted misconstrues the meaning of the watchdog role and gives it a liberal cast, but the concept is deeper and more nuanced than the literal sense of afflicting or comforting would suggest. As history shows, it more properly means watching over the powerful few in society on behalf of the many to guard against tyranny. The purpose of the watchdog role also extends beyond simply making the management and execution of power transparent, to making known and understood the effects of that power.