''The Saturday Press'' was the name of a newspaper, established in 1927 by Jay M. Near and Howard A. Guilford, and published in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[ The newspaper was run by Jay Near, who was an allegedly anti-Semitic, ]anti-labor
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
and anti-Communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
small-time editor.sensationalism
In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotio ...
, filling columns with a mishmash of pioneering exposes of public corruption and totally unsubstantiated calumny."Floyd B. Olson
Floyd Bjørnstjerne "Skipper" Olson (November 13, 1891 – August 22, 1936) was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931, to August 22, 1936, dying in office of stomach cancer. Olson wa ...
, the future governor of Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, brought a suit against Near and Guilford because their newspaper had an overly anti-Semitic tone, which Olsen claimed was a violation of the Public Nuisance Law, also known as the Minnesota Gag Law, of 1925. The scandal sheet published countless exposes until it was shut down in 1927 by the Gag Law. In 1931, the historic U.S. Supreme Court case ''Near v. Minnesota
''Near v. Minnesota'', 283 U.S. 697 (1931), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the US Supreme Court under which prior restraint on publication was found to violate Freedom of the press in the United S ...
'' struck the statute as unconstitutional. Prior restraint
Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government or institution, on expression, that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship ...
laws have never fared well in courts since, including the case of the Pentagon Papers
The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 ...
. The paper re-appeared from 1932 to 1936, when Jay Near died in relative obscurity.
References
External links
Text of ''Near v. Minnesota''
at Findlaw.
Defunct newspapers published in Minnesota
{{Minnesota-newspaper-stub