It's really important to be clear about something: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not a guy we should be elevating. He's been a nutjob for decades, and just because he's expressed skepticism about the COVID vaccine doesn't negate all the damage he's done as a full-fledged anti-vaxxer.
I can't stand DWS, but she is right; these quotes are accurate. RFK just thinks Facts are Racist™. https://t.co/HRDbmCqapU
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) July 20, 2023
Now, that being said, yesterday's House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing on censorship, during which RFK Jr. testified, did help to illustrate an important point that he was trying to make: Democrats have disturbingly embraced a very pro-censorship mentality.
Its really incredible how stupid Democrats are. https://t.co/QIWrnoa4iu
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) July 20, 2023
On this, he's not wrong. https://t.co/nwmpKtKoTy
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) July 20, 2023
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And with regard to censorship, RFK Jr.'s issues are valid. Disagreement with someone's point of view is not grounds to silence them, at least according to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
And yet, New York Times Washington correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a member of the press, whose freedom is guaranteed in that same First Amendment, seems to think that freedom of speech is a "thorny" issue:
Despite the theater, the hearing raised thorny questions about free speech in a democratic society: Is misinformation protected by the First Amendment? When is it appropriate for the federal government to seek to tamp down the spread of falsehoods? https://t.co/sLPuIJih42
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) July 20, 2023
Thursday’s session had all the makings of a Washington spectacle. A long line had formed outside the hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building by the time Mr. Kennedy arrived. Kennedy supporters stood outside the building holding a Kennedy 2024 banner.
Despite the theater, the hearing raised thorny questions about free speech in a democratic society: Is misinformation protected by the First Amendment? When is it appropriate for the federal government to seek to tamp down the spread of falsehoods?
Democrats accused Republicans of giving Mr. Kennedy a forum for bigotry and pseudoscience. “Free speech is not an absolute,” said Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. “The Supreme Court has stated that. And others’ free speech that is allowed — hateful, abusive rhetoric — does not need to be promoted in the halls of the People’s House.”
Why does the First Amendment raise "thorny questions"?
There's nothing "thorny" about Stolberg's questions.
Yes and never. Easy answers a journalist that isn’t a fascist should know
— Eric (@EB21122) July 21, 2023
She shouldn't even find it necessary to ask those questions. The First Amendment is pretty clear on free speech, and, as we've seen from both the media and our government, "misinformation" is a highly subjective term that is often used as a catch-all term for "any information we don't like or agree with or want out there in the world." And the idea that the government has an obligation "to tamp down the spread of falsehoods" when the government is frequently the source of falsehoods is ludicrous.
In a reported NYT piece, the paper considers "Is misinformation protected by the First Amendment?" a thorny question. Has there ever been a First Amendment case where a judge ruled someone isn't allowed to say something that's factually wrong? pic.twitter.com/WjgVxzR2al
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) July 21, 2023
Maybe if Democrats ever get the chance to pack the Supreme Court, there will be. But as of yet, the answer is no. And that's as it should be.
This would require a National Bureau of Checking Facts that produces an Official Version of the Truth.
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) July 21, 2023
The Ministry of Truth didn't quite work out, but we're sure that PolitiFact would be more than happy to offer up their "analysis" skills.
My God, Sheryl? How can this even be a question?
— XBradTC (@xbradtc) July 21, 2023
Next thing you know, people will be objecting to the received wisdom of the Democratic Party and its organs, the media and "researchers" in academia.
How can our precious democracy survive peasants thinking outside the lines?
the statement ‘trans women are women’ is misinformation
— blessed skeleton (@skeletmans) July 21, 2023
should this falsehood be tamped down
genuinely curious
That the NYT, itself, engaged in reporting misinformation should be the subject of its navel gazing.
— Andrea E (@AAC0519) July 21, 2023
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Related:
Dems try to silence RFK Jr. at gov't censorship hearing as irony detectors explode
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