Category Archives: Freedom of Speech and of the Press

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The truth shall set you free, and the extreme left are afraid that Libs of Tik Tok will set some Democrats free of their party!

Why, I have to ask, is The Washington Post paying owner Jeff Bezos’ hard earned dollars to Elon Musk’s Twitter to promote an article doxing a conservative on Twitter? The image to the right is a screen capture, but if you click on it, it will take you to the original tweet.

Post writer Taylor Lorenz spent a lot of time investigating the Twitter account Libs of TikTok. LoTT’s schtick is to find the silliest things leftists put on the social media site Tik Tok, and snark them for sensible people on Twitter. Basically, LoTT is mocking people for their own exposed stupidity. My good friend Amanda Marcotte of Salon loved that LoTT was doxed, doubtlessly hoping that Chaya Raichik, a Brooklyn-based real estate salesperson and LoTT creator would lose her job, and her posting today is a hope that Mr Musk’s buyout of Twitter results in the whole thing being killed. Continue reading →

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The New York Times really hates freedom of speech . . . for other people

In 1971, President Richard Nixon sought a restraining order to prevent The New York Times and The Washington Post from printing more of the so-called “Pentagon Papers,” technically the Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, a classified history and assessment of American policy and operations in the Vietnam war. The Times and the Post fought the injunctions in court, the Times winning in New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971). The Times was all about the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press.

It’s early yet, but at least thus far, the editors of The New York Times have not published an editorial attacking Elon Musk’s agreed-to purchase of Twitter, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t allowed one of their Editorial Board to opine against it.

Twitter Under Elon Musk Will Be a Scary Place

by Greg Bensinger | April 25, 2022 | 7:20 PM EDT

Twitter has never been a place for rational, nuanced speech. Expect it to get much, much worse.

The New York Times has always been a supporter of freedom of the press . . . when they were the guardians and gatekeepers of that freedom. It wasn’t that long ago when for someone to get his opinions heard beyond bullhorn range, he had to persuade an editor to give him column inches in the newspaper or air time on radio or television. It did not matter how “rational” or “nuanced” what you had to say might have been, if an editor didn’t approve, it wasn’t to be published or broadcast. Continue reading →

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At Ohio State University, the students want wrongthink punished

The freedom of speech comes with the freedom of other people to read or listen to, or not read or listen to, what you have said. The freedom of speech also comes with the assumed risk that those who do read or listen to your words can and just might criticize what you have written or said.

It seems, however, at least at Ohio State University, it also comes with the risk that you might be reported to the authorities.

OSU Student Faces Criticism For Saying Black People Are Superior: ‘I Full-Heartedly Believe That’

Danteé Ramos | Earthy Day, April 22, 2022 | 4:04 PM EDT

An Ohio State University (OSU) student leader is facing criticism after saying that he’d “love” to live in a world if “Black people were taught that they are superior.”

According to OSU’s student newspaper, The Lantern, On March 23, John Fuller, a junior, who was a member of the Ohio State University Undergraduate Student Government General Assembly at the time of the meeting, made comments while proposing resolutions targeting all anti-critical race theory legislation to the General Assembly.

“By taking away the teaching of one race as superior to another, that is inherently white supremacy because white people learn from birth that they are superior. There is nothing that they need to be taught in school that tells them that,” Fuller said.

“I just wanted to say that and make this very clear, the only people who are taught that they are superior to another race are White people,” Fuller said. “And I would absolutely love to live in a world where Black people were taught that they are superior.”

He added that he “full-heartedly” believes that Black people are superior.

OSU’s Undergraduate Student Government President, Jacob Chang, told the student newspaper The Lantern that Fuller’s comments were “diverging from our values.”

So, Mr Fuller was criticized for saying out loud that he “full-heartedly” believes that black people are superior. That is the risk he takes by speaking in public, and the freedom of speech of others to criticize what he said certainly exists. But then comes the money line in the story:

“The comments made during the General Assembly session is fundamentally, like, diverging from our values as the student government of Ohio State,” Chang said. “Therefore, it is our responsibility to report a case like this. I think we need to stand in solidarity with all people of color and anyone who suffers from racism, but we need to do it from a space that is unilaterally empowering everyone around them instead of like single out one group.”

OSU’s student newspaper, The Lantern, reported that after Mr Fuller made his comments, the Speaker of the student General Assembly dismissed him, and that members of the Assembly forwarded video and audio of his comments to the university’s Office of Institutional Equity.

They did? Apparently members of the Assembly believed that Mr Fuller’s comments ought not only to be disapproved, but punished as well. From The Lantern:

The resolution condemning all anti-critical race theory passed in the General Assembly, Chang said. The resolution is crucial to ensure that critical race theory is taught at public universities, but the way Fuller made it about “empowerment and another form of like supremacy” that was “inherently racist,” he said.

Chang said the next step is to hope the university takes action on the case against Fuller.

“No matter what race you are from, what background you are from, you cannot say stuff like that,” Chang said.

If you yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theater, and that yell leads to a crushing stampede to the exits, in which people are injured, you can be held legally liable. But Mr Chang and at least some members of the student government want to see Mr Fuller somehow punished for making a statement of which they disapproved which injured no one, unless perhaps it was someone’s precious little feelings. More accurately, they would like to see Mr Fuller punished somehow for “full-heartedly” believing that black people are superior to other races.

What might such punishment entail? Neither article tells us, but it isn’t difficult to speculate. Mandatory ‘re-education’ classes to reform his beliefs? A forced statement that he doesn’t really believe what he said? Could it even lead to academic probation, suspension or expulsion? We just don’t know, but the fact that the student government wants Mr Fuller punished somehow for what he believes and said he believes is chilling. Ohio State is a public university, which would mean that the state would be taking action against a student for exercising his freedom of speech.

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Irony is so ironic: Robert Reich uses his freedom of speech and of the press to attack freedom of speech and of the press

We noted on Saturday, April 9th, that Ellen Pao, a tech investor and advocate, the resigned-before-she-could-be-fired CEO of Reddit, and a cofounder and CEO of the diversity and inclusion nonprofit Project Include, and someone who uses her freedom of speech and of the press to maintain her own website, used her freedom of speech and of the press — in that case, The Washington Post’s freedom of the press — to attack other people’s freedom of speech and of the press. That irony seemed to escape her.

Now comes Robert B Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com, using his freedom of speech, and The Guardian’s freedom of the press, to tell us that if you support freedom of speech and of the press, you’re no better than Vladimir Putin! Continue reading →

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COVID-19 is the New Reichstag Fire

Following the electoral victories of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei in 1932, and the parliamentary chaos that resulted from no able to form a majority government, General Kurt von Schleicher was replaced as Reichskanzler by Adolf Hitler, appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933. Reichskanzler Hitler quickly began accumulating power — the Chancellor’s position was actually rather weak under the Weimar Republic — and then, following the staged Reichstag fire, President von Hindenburg, on the urging of his Chancellor, issued the Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat, the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State, which suspended many of the civil liberties of the German people. Since the positions of power in the government were held by the Nazis, this decree, along with the subsequent Ermächtigungsgesetz, the Enabling Act of 1933, enabled Reichskanzler Hitler to stifle individual liberties and rule by decree.

On the basis of Article 48 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the German Reich, the following is ordered in defense against Communist state-endangering acts of violence:

§ 1. Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom, freedom of expression, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for House searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

This is all well known, so surely no free and democratic state would make take such actions again, right?

“Govern me, daddy”: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear a clean-cut sex symbol for the coronavirus age

People are now lusting after Kentucky’s “hot Mr. Rogers” because of his calm and empathetic leadership

by Erin Keane | March 21, 2020 | 6:54 PM EDT

Of all the wild turns 2020 could have taken, I doubt anyone had “Kentucky’s new governor becomes a sex symbol during the coronavirus crisis” on their bingo card, but here we are. Or rather, here we were until Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, 42, delivered a loving yet stern call-out during his press briefing Wednesday to defiant bingo halls that weren’t closing to enforce social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19. These updates, live-streamed daily at 5 p.m. Eastern time, have become must-see and -listen events for Kentuckians thanks to Beshear’s combo of trustworthy information, empathy, and uplifting we’re all in this together messages. “If you are a bingo parlor in Pike County, you ought to be closed by the end of today,” he said, with unmistakable concern in his eyes. “Those parlors cater to an older and more at-risk crowd.” Forget being brave enough to face the toilet paper-hoarding supermarket crowds, there’s a new benchmark for courage: Andy Beshear’s not scared of angering stir-crazy grandmothers in order to protect his people.

“Govern me, daddy,” cracked Natasha Collier of Lexington on a Reddit thread in response to Beshear’s decisive leadership. When I reached out to ask her about her post, Collier told me that was her response to “a lesbian friend of mine who said that she was starting to develop a crush” on Gov. Beshear too. They’re not alone; just in my social circle I’ve noticed Andy Thirst where before none existed. Turns out competence and empathy, perhaps, are the biggest turn-ons.

Erin Keane is the Editor in Chief for Salon, the very liberal e-zine for which Amanda Marcotte writes, which lets you know just how kooky-left the place is. Mrs Keane grew up in the Bluegrass State, so I suppose it isn’t surprising that she would have paid additional attention to the Commonwealth’s Governor, but her article is truly fawning.

Plenty of the love for Beshear is fatherly or platonic, of course. A Facebook group, “andy beshear memes for social distancing teens,” has become a go-to repository for images comparing Beshear to everything from the Mandalorian (babysitting Kentuckians, represented by Baby Yoda) to Disney’s “The Lion King” father Mufasa (Kentuckians are Simba, of course). He’s cast as Jason Momoa tackling Henry Cavill standing in for a bingo parlor. By decree of the admins, the memes are supposed to be wholesome, and mostly they are. Nevertheless, innuendo persists. In one post, “SNL” star Pete Davidson is cast as Andy Beshear with Kentuckians represented by Ariana Grande, licking a lollipop and looking up at him in unfiltered lust; an image of Jeff Goldblum suggests that while Beshear is focused on keeping Kentuckians safe, some constituents wish he would, um, sexually choke them at the same time.

Yeah, “sexually choke” is probably the right description, because, like so many other Democratic — and sadly, a few Republican — Governors out there are trampling on the civil liberties of the public. As we have previously noted, Mr Beshear has placed a 53-year-old Nelson County man into what amounts to house arrest, forcing a COVID-19 positive individual who refuses to self-isolate to remain in his home, with an armed guard outside to prevent him from leaving. This was done without any due process of law, without any day in court for the man, and the left are cheering this!

What will the armed deputy do if this man decides to leave his home? Will he shoot him?

The Fourteenth Amendment states, in part:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yet the Commonwealth of Kentucky, led by Führer und Reichskanzler Beshear, are using existing state law to deny this man his liberty, without any due process of law, ans Salon’s Editor in Chief is apparently getting sexually excited over it. Should we have to remind Americans that the German people were getting very, very excited and happy over Reichskanzler Hitler’s strong and decisive actions during the Depression? Mrs Keane seems to be absolutely gushing about Mr Beshear “sexually chok(ing)” his fans . . . and other Kentuckians as well.

Of course, it’s not only in Kentucky where governors are simply suspending civil rights to fight COVID-19. Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) is doing similar things, ordering all ‘non-essential’ businesses to close down, including the possibility of imprisonment for failure to comply.

Today’s left just love some strong leadership, and that it tramples upon our civil rights, well they don’t care about that, not as long as the leadership is being shown by a Democrat, and not that evil fascist dictator Donald Trump! Mrs Keane is right there, her right arm raised in salute, shouting “Seig heil!” right along with the rest of the crowd.