For the umpteenth time, AP executive order Julie Pace claims that it’s fighting for the freedom of speech of all Americans by demanding exclusive cartel access to the White House.
If Pace were at all literate, she would at least be arguing about Freedom of the Press, but neither one applies.
Now if Trump had dispatched the FBI to take smash up the presses or ban the AP from operating for refusing to use the term Gulf of America, that would be a textbook First Amendment violation.
But that’s not happening. Instead the AP isn’t getting the access it wants. And access is not a right or a freedom, it’s a privilege. One that operates on the premise that media access should be limited to select elite groups. Press access is not freedom, it’s privilege.
It did however happen to conservative journalists when the government came after them, directly or indirectly through Facebook or Twitter, for their views. Julie had no problem with that because they weren’t in the club. And the club is the actual enemy of Freedom of the Press.
“The ability to comment on politics and consume news created without interference and intimidation by the government is central to American democracy. So central, in fact, that it is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Pace argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
It is central. It does not pertain to getting access to government events, but being able to comment and write about politics without being censored by Facebook at a command from the White House.
Tellingly, Julie Pace uses the word “consume”. To her, free speech is a passive act. The act of consuming or listening to whatever lies she tells while commanding an unearned power.
That’s not how the First Amendment was ever meant to work.
