First Amendment Watch – No. 1

I began drafting this towards the end of July. The constant bullshit out of the White House about ‘Fake News’ and the press being the ‘Enemy of the People’ was starting to scare me. While the Annapolis Gazette shooter was mad for other reasons, I have no doubt there are impressionable whack-jobs out there who would take it upon themselves to help our president rid the country of a journalist or three.

(Sure enough, after I wrote this, an enthusiastic Trump supporter mailed IED’s to Democrats and other citizens Trump and the GOP have been demonizing for years.)

Cartoon by Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

In August, the Boston Globe rose to the occasion and urged every paper in the country to rise up and explain to the public the importance of a free press and the need for the public to be well-informed. I’ll take that a step further. I believe it is the responsibility of the voting public to be well-informed.

It’s an Election Year and you know how I sometimes get a little jazzed around now. With all the ‘Fake News’ and ‘Enemy of the People’ talk coming out of our President, I thought I might start an Occasional Series on this platform. Let’s call it

The 

Occasional

WHAT-YOU-WOULD-MISS-IF-THERE-WERE-NO-FREE-PRESS

Announcement

24 July 2018
President Trump posted the following Tweet –

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!"

Whoa! Today, he agrees that the Russians meddled in our elections AND they’re going to do it again. Also, he had to add, again (all together now), “no president has been tougher on Russia blah, blah.” But now, the Ruskies are pro-Democrats…because Big Bad Don is so very hard on them.

25 July 2018

The White House released their transcript of the July 16 Helsinki Summit press conference. Despite the widely-seen video that shows Don’s pal Vlad’s robust statement that he wanted Trump to WIN the 2016 election, the White House transcript has omitted the reporter’s question (“Did you want President Trump to win the election?”) and Putin’s answer (“Yes, I did. Yes, I did.”).

The Administration’s transcript. The official, historical, referenceable document of record…has been fudged to suit the President’s peculiar propaganda predilections. He is the president after all.

“Nah. I don’t like that part. Take it out.”
“Yes, Sir, Mr. President.”

I’m sure Fox News and Trump’s vision of the perfect lap dog media would be quick to point out that little discrepancy for 'We, The People'. Yes, they would.

Remember, the FIRST Amendment is much more important than the Second.
That’s why it’s first.

As a reminder, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.