The 1st Amendment is in jeopardy and it’s not just journalists who should be concerned. Signed in 1791, the amendment ensures freedom of expression and prohibits restricting the press. It also prohibits restricting the right of a citizen to speak out.
There are exceptions to that right: hate speech or inciting violence (which seems to get a pass if you are an ex-president).
Make no mistake, the move to silence those who have differing views then the current administration is happening. The removal of Jimmy Kimmel from Late Night television came down to pressure from a sponsor, and a network acquiescing to the current views of the administration. I would argue that Kimmel’s remarks were pretty on target. The decision as to whether Kimmel’s remarks turned viewers off resulting in fewer viewers should have been the viewing public’s decision. If the majority of viewers don’t like what he said, they hold the power to turn the channel and have him gone.
Censorship of entertainers isn’t new. In 1950, Jean Muir was an actress set to star in a new NBC comedy, The Aldrich Family, A book, Red Channels, listed her as having communist ties because she had simply joined the Congress of Women Voters. General Foods refused to accept her and she was blacklisted never to appear on TV again.
If 1950 and the Red Scare seems far, far away, I would submit to you that that mindset is being repeated today. POLITICO reports that reporters who cover the Pentagon are now required to sign a paper saying they agree not to publish classified documents or those critical of the administration. If those reporters decline, they will be denied access to the building.
I think back to Woodward & Bernstein who exposed Watergate and the publisher Katherine Graham who had the guts to print the expose. I think of the Pentagon Papers whose investigation into LBJ and the Viet Nam War opened our eyes. I think of all the tentacles of government where there are many wrongs that need to be righted and only an investigative reporter with a Freedom of Information request and a fearless editor and publisher willing to break the story stand between corruption running rampant and the corruption exposed.
Our fight to keep the 1st Amendment intact, isn’t just our fight…..it’s your fight. If the Freedom of Information protection doesn’t remain intact, we will be a nation spoon fed what the current administration wants us to believe. Free thinkers, will be silenced and the media will dance to the tune of the advertisers.
In their wisdom our founders knew in 1791 that a free nation can only be free with a media and citizens free to report the news and speak their mind.
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