First Amendment News

Greenpeace’s Ebony Martin in Salon, May 13, 2023, argues that corporations routinely cause chemical spills and other public health threats with impunity as they use the legal system to silence anyone criticizing them. Through the use of SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, the fossil fuel industry has attacked over 150 individuals and organizations in the last 10 years. Martin wants Congress to enact Representative Jaime Raskin’s bipartisan legislation that protects the right to

Elon Musk complied with the Turkish government request to censor the accounts of the election opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan. Muck has enacted 30 percent more government requests for censorship than his predecessor. (Business Insider, May 13, 2023, by Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert) A host of critics blasted Musk for his hypocrisy in declaring Twitter a free speech stronghold then regularly shutting down speech. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg posted on Twitter that if Twitter were shut down

Fired Fox News host tucker Carlson said he would soon begin a broadcast on Twitter. He indicated he would focus on the how the elite control life in America. It remains to be seen if he will still indulge his propensity for racist comments and lies about public events. (New York Magazine, May 9, 2023, by Matt Stieb) It’s unclear if Carson’s move to Twitter will make money as advertisers may well desert in the

Perry Bacon Jr. in The Washington Post, May 9, 2023, says that the media has to cover former president Donald Trump as the most likely to receive the Republican nomination for president in 2024 but avoid past mistakes. CNN said they were treating Trump like any other candidate, a dangerous approach since he spews lies and tries to tear down democratic institutions and norms. Bacon lists three principles that should govern coverage: focus on “the

A federal district judge ruled that Senator Elizabeth Warren did not have to take back her criticism of a book by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His publishing company sued her for hurting sales of the book in effect causing censorship. (The Associated Press, May 10,2023, by Gene Johnson) Warren sent a letter to Amazon challenging their promotion of a book that carried Covid-19 falsehoods. The judge held that the plaintiffs had not justified