Tag: first amendment

Conservative writer slams GOP senator for spreading ‘legal disinformation’ about the First Amendment

AlterNet logoWhile many argue that social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter need to do a better job of policing content posted by President Donald Trump and his allies, Trump supporters have a very different view. They claim that those outlets are discriminating against Republicans and violating the First Amendment protections. Far-right Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia made such claims during a recent appearance on Fox News — and a well-known conservative journalist, David A. French, is schooling her on what the First Amendment actually does.

Loeffler told Fox News: “It’s very clear that there needs to be strong action, and that’s what I’m taking. I’m taking strong action to protect the 1st Amendment — the freedom of speech for all Americans regardless of their political party. I’ve signed onto legislation to look at the limits on immunity from litigation that currently protects big tech. You know, if you look at what’s happened, it’s all happened against conservative speech — and we need to take a close look at that…. Right now, conservative speech is really under fire by big tech.”

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced a bill that would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and allow lawsuits against platforms like Twitter and Facebook on the grounds that they are censoring political speech. Loeffler voiced her support for the legislation: Continue reading.

President Obama: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.

Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.

First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood. Continue reading.

A history of the Trump War on Media — the obsession not even coronavirus could stop

Washington Post logoPresident Trump took the lectern in the White House press briefing room with a somber face on the afternoon of March 19, the day the tally of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases was expected to pass the 10,000 mark.

But about an hour into a briefing filled with bleak data, a correspondent for conservative One America News Network known for her pro-Trump advocacy asked him a question, and a smile crossed his lips.

She was asking about the treachery of the “left-wing media.” One of his favorite subjects. Continue reading.

Trump to Female Reporter: ‘Don’t Be a Baby’

Credit: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters

President Trump brushed off questions from a female reporter on Friday by telling her, “Don’t be a baby.” During a round-table discussion on immigration in Arizona, Trump had repeatedly stated that migrants trying to enter the U.S. are “hardened criminals.” “These are some bad people coming through. These aren’t babies, these aren’t little angels coming into our country,” he said. When New York Times reporter Emily Cochrane asked him to clarify what evidence leads him to believe the migrants are “hardened criminals,” Trump said, “Oh, please. Please. Don’t be a baby. Okay?” He went on to urge Cochrane to “just take a look at what’s happened.” “Look at the Mexican soldiers laying on the ground. These are hardened—I didn’t say all of them…These are tough, tough people, and I don’t want them and neither does our country want them,” Trump was quoted as saying. The president was apparently referencing clashes at Mexico’s border with Guatemala that broke out Friday as a migrant caravan from Honduras tried to get through. Several police officers and migrants were reportedly injured as migrants tried to push through the gates.

The following October 20 article was posted on the DailyBeast.com website here.

Trump Praises Gianforte for Physically Assaulting Reporter

‘Any guy who can do a body slam — he’s my guy,’ president says

Credit: News Live Insanemrbrain via YouTube screengrab

President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte for physically assaulting a reporter on the eve of a special election last year.

Addressing a rally in Missoula on his third trip to Montana this year, Trump at first only alluded to the 2017 incident. “Never wrestle him,” he said after calling Gianforte onstage.

But then the president went further.

View the complete October 18 article by Simone Pathé on the Roll Call website here.

Conservatives’ war on the press has gotten dangerous — and it’s only going to get worse

Credit: Melissa Joskow, Media Matters

President Donald Trump’s “enemy of the people” rhetoric is putting the lives of American journalists at risk, Mother Jones’ Mark Follman reported Thursday, citing comments from law enforcement leaders and top security officials at two major news outlets.

Trump’s years of vicious invective — echoed by his allies at Fox News — are bearing fruit. Reporters are facing a surge in bomb and death threats, organized harassment, online publication of their personal information (“doxxing”), and threatening mail sent to their home addresses, Follman’s sources warn. One security director at a major television news network told Follman that the threats spike when Trump rails against the network by name, with the harassers often using Trump’s “fake news” language, and that they are primarily aimed at journalists who report on the White House and the Trump-Russia probe — the very targets of the president’s ire.

This heightened fear of violence against reporters will certainly continue throughout Trump’s tenure as president. There’s no indication that he will ever stop demonizing journalists — this is a deliberate strategy to discredit them for political gain that he has continued employing even after a man was arrested for threatening to murder reporters while using Trump’s anti-press rhetoric. But there’s reason to fear that even after Trump is no longer president — especially if he wins re-election in 2020 — his party will continue down the same path. Naked, vicious hostility to the press could become a central plank of the Republican Party, turning elevated concerns about potential violence into the new normal.

View the complete September 14 article on the MediaMatters.org website here.

More than 100 newspapers will condemn Trump’s attacks on the media

The following article by Alison Durkee was posted on the Mic.com website August 13, 2018:

Following an appeal from the Boston Globe, more than 100 publicationsnationwide are preparing to decry President Donald Trump’s characterization of the media as an “enemy of the people.”

The Globe is reaching out to newspaper editorial boards to publish opinion pieces Thursday defending journalism, as part of a coordinated response to Trump’s repeated attacks on the media, which he frequently refers to as “fake news.”

“This dirty war on the free press must end,” the Globe’s appeal said, the Guardian reported. “Publications, whatever their politics, could make a powerful statement by standing together in the common defense of their profession and the vital role it plays in government for and by the people.”

View the complete article here.

‘Not the enemy of the people’: 70 news organizations will blast Trump’s attack on the media

The following article by Cleve R. Wootson, Jr., was posted on the Washington Post website August 12, 2018:

President Trump is not the first leader to label journalists as “enemies of the people” and creators of “fake news.” Credit: Melissa Macaya, The Washington Post

For most of the past 19 months, President Trump’s war of words with American news organizations has been more of a one-sided barrage — at least according to the Boston Globe’s editorial board.

Trump labeled the news media “the enemy of the American people” a month after taking the oath of office. In the year that followed, a CNN analysis concluded, he used the word “fake” — as in “fake news,” “fake stories,” “fake media” or “fake polls” — more than 400 times. He once fumed, the New York Times reported, because a TV on Air Force One was tuned to CNN.

And last week, at a political rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told his audience that the media was “fake, fake disgusting news.”

View the complete article here.

Trump Will Have Blood on His Hands

The following commentary by Bret Stephens was posted on the New York Times August 3, 2018:

His demonization of the news media won’t fall on deaf ears.

The crowd at a Make America Great Again rally in Pennsylvania, stoked by President Trump’s statements, was particularly hostile to the press. Credit: Al Drago, The New York Times

The voice, if I had to guess, belongs to that of a white American male in late middle age. The accent is faintly Southern, the manner taunting but relaxed. It’s also familiar: I’m pretty sure he’s left a message on my office number before. But the last voice mail left almost no impression. Not this time.

“Hey Bret, what do you think? Do you think the pen is mightier than the sword, or that the AR is mightier than the pen?”

He continues: “I don’t carry an AR but once we start shooting you f—ers you aren’t going to pop off like you do now. You’re worthless, the press is the enemy of the United States people and, you know what, rather than me shoot you, I hope a Mexican and, even better yet, I hope a n— shoots you in the head, dead.”

View the complete post here.

Pence: Press freedom is great, until reporters do something we don’t like

The following article by Tommy Christopher was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 29, 2018:

Pence claimed he and Trump ‘stand for’ freedom of the press — then immediately contradicted himself.

Credit: Fox News

Mike Pence added insult to injury when he claimed that he and Trump’s administration are big believers in freedom of the press — and then immediately defended Trump’s decision to ban a CNN reporter from covering an event.

On this week’s edition of Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” even host and pro-Trump zealot Maria Bartiromo seemed disgusted with Pence over the administration’s decision to bar CNN’s Kaitlan Collins from a White House event last week just because she asked questions at the end of another event.

“Was it necessary to throw out Kaitlin Collins from CNN the other day?” Bartiromo asked Pence in an interview. “What happened?”

View the complete article here.