“Donald Trump should be banned from any form of social media other than scrawling on bathroom walls. And even then he should be made to wash it off when he gets caught,” said the Chicago Sun-Times in an editorial last week.
They apparently think a permanent ban should be a sure thing. “As long as the former president lies about everything, Facebook may continue to ban him,” they wrote. “And he will always lie about everything.” The Sun-Times is not alone. CNN, for example, published at least two opinion pieces calling for a permanent social media ban on Trump.
Regardless of how bad you think Trump is, or how bad he is in fact, nothing justifies totally muting anybody who got at least 74 million votes for president (and would have gotten far more had most of the media covered him honestly).
The news reporters for the Sun-Times should be embarrassed by their editorial board’s open disregard for freedom of expression, the marketplace of ideas and the need for papers to maintain a reputation balance and objectivity.
Let’s assume for purposes here that Trump lies, and even that he lies more than most politicians. But it’s absurd to claim that he “always lies” as the Sun-Times claimed. Nor can it be claimed that most of his lies are incitements to imminent violence, which is the established standard in America under the First Amendment for when the government may censor speech — a standard the social media platforms should be copying, but haven’t.
And media like the Sun-Times should be particularly mindful that prior restraints on speech, like a permanent ban, are especially wrong. The media itself gets an extremely high level of freedom from prior restraints under American law.
This is no drill. Media bias and dishonesty is a crisis. The Sun-Times editorial is further proof.
-Mark Glennon
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Can we please STOP referring to propaganda outlets like the CS-T as ‘journalists’ or ‘fair and balanced’ or serious? It’s obvious that the CS-T doesn’t care if people view it as a unserious propaganda outlet. ‘Karens’ are like that.
The only thing that should be banned is the FIBUNE for its constant twisting of the truth. Bankrupt and soon to die, goodbye.
No, now their “investors” are carping about the need for “government aid.” You know, “democracy dies in darkness” and all that stuff.
Time for the government to step in and subsidize it so that these SJW’s can “earn a living wage,” like their government counterparts.
SJW’s find “business” to be demeaning and crass. People of such a high order should not be subject to the whims of a corrupt capitalist market, you know.
We lose a little more freedom every day.
The Sun Times editorial board consistently got details wrong on the Fair Tax. Don’t expect them to understand the basics of free speech, or journalism for that matter.
DNC war game exercise two years back said its primary concern was Trump’s ability to be a defacto shadow president. They believed he would use social media to undermine the legitimacy of and ability of Usurper Biden; and he could command at will tens of millions of people to resist and delegitimate Biden’s policies. And honestly, they’re probably a little right. President Trump is banned from social media not because they’re against free speech, but because they’re afraid that he delegitimizes Usurper Biden. But for the rest of us peons, the Sun-Times and every other major journalist doesn’t care about… Read more »
This is largely driven by SJW activist Millennial reporters in the newsroom shaming their older, already left-leaning peers and editors. We’ve seen it happen at the NYT, Washington Post, etc. Their older peers know better, but they are cowards who give in to this New Age mindset of cancellation and banishment. I believe they do it for fear of their own cancellation. They know they will be eaten by the Young. When I was in college, I was taught that all opinions had value for discussion, even the most “abhorrent” ones. After all, what better way to change minds than… Read more »
They can only be taken for what they are- state news media. There is a reason why the Soviet news was called “Pravda” (Truth)