Fears For The First Amendment

For John, BLUF:  Then there are the people out there who think there is some impartial way of divining the truth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Gawker’s Fall & the Trump-Era Threat to 1st Amendment.

That is The New Yorker and Reporter Jeffrey Toobin.

The fear is a loss of the First Amendment protections for the Press and for Free Speech.

Here is the quote Blog Post Author Steven Green pulled from the article:

For decades, the news media benefitted from the deference paid by courts to the judgments of newspaper editors. The judge in federal court treated Gawker’s editors as if they were running a newspaper, and he declined to second-guess them about what constitutes the news.  The jury in state court did the opposite.  The question now is whether the law, instead of treating every publication as a newspaper, will start to treat all publications as Web sites—with the same skepticism and hostility displayed by the jury in Tampa.  The new President and his fellow-billionaires, like Thiel, will certainly welcome a legal environment that is less forgiving of media organizations. Trump’s victory, along with Hulk Hogan’s, suggests that the public may well take their side, too.

Yes, what is it about "Trump=Era Threat"?  With Mrs Clinton, who threw the First Amendment under the bus over Benghazi, as President, it would have been worse.

Here is part of Mr Green's comments:

Hillary Clinton was the subject of the movie in the Citizens United case, which as a candidate she promised to see overturned — silencing political filmmakers for generations to come. It was on Clinton’s behalf (following her blunder at Benghazi) that an innocent YouTube videomaker was jailed for nearly a year. Just last week it was Clinton who urged “that Congress should take action against” purveyors of what she deems to be “fake news.” And forget mere threats, what about two years ago when Democrats tried to repeal the First Amendment? That, too, was backed by Hillary Clinton.

When I was young we used to talk about people having their head in the sand.  I see that activity here.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff