Trump Administration V. First Amendment Protection of the Free Press
From this article: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the State Department’s decision to deny NPR press credentials for his trip to Europe following his confrontation with reporter Mary Louise Kelly, stating in an interview in Kazakhstan Sunday that it sends “a perfect message about press freedoms” to the world.
Indeed, this is the perfect message, if by “perfection” he means clarity. It says, with total lucidity: the U.S. federal government can and will exert its limitless power to stifle the free press and muzzle any journalists whose coverage criticizes the president or his staff.
As anyone could have predicted, Trump has come back from his impeachment proceedings with a full bore attack on anyone and anything that poses any opposition to his wanton abuse of executive power.
In case it needs to be said, this is not sustainable. We either protect our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, or we lose them.
Craig,
Once again, i take down my well thumbed copy of the US Constitution to find where Mike Pompeo has “stifle the free press or muzzled any journalist”.
Has the Secretary of State closed down a newspaper, imposed censorship, thrown a reporter in jail ? Nope.
The US press and media have suffered no loss of freedom, the NYT, WP LAT, MCNBC and CNN are quite free to hysterically rant against the administration. Mike Bloomberg can even still run a highly successful media empire while spending billions in an attempt to buy and election.
Has NPR or Mary Louise Kelly been prevented from publishing her opinions?
Not being included in the Secretary’s entourage, doesn’t seem to be one of the rights stipulated in my copy of the Constitution!
So, what the hell are you on about?