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A plea to media

Speech is the first liberty enshrined in our bill of rights. I doubt this placement is happenstance. Whatever their flaws, our founders demonstrated great wisdom when they chose to restrict the State’s capacity to impinge the free expression of its citizenry. Indeed, the first amendment is the foundation upon which all other liberties can stand. The exchange of ideas facilitates democratic compromise. Conflict is an unavoidable part of human discourse, but even the most heated debate stings less than fists or bullets. The First Amendment is not trivial, to be negotiated away against the merest threat of a toxic viewpoint.

When the press, whose very existence depends on the First Amendment, aligns itself against the freedom of speech I can no longer support them. There is an ideological battle within our culture, and the media has clearly chosen sides. “Trump is a Nazi” has become unsupported by reason and evidence, but ubiquitous nonetheless. Meanwhile AntiFa, a group who openly promotes violence and has a demonstrated willingness to use it indiscriminately, have been styled “patriots.”

I’m particularly disturbed by the media’s trend to associate free speech itself with extremism. Both Boston and San Francisco have recently, albeit reluctantly, hosted free speech rallies, broadly depicted with the predictable progressive-stack of groundless accusations: white-supremacist, far-right, hate-fueled, anti-immigrant, all the usual suspects. I don’t trust the media anymore, so I did my own research into these events and their organizers.

The main speaker at the Boston event was Shiva Ayyadurai, the son of Indian immigrants, and Republican candidate opposite incumbent Elizabeth Warren. I’m skeptical of the notion the blue state Massachusetts is a hotbed of neo-confederate sentiment. Most of their Republicans are of the mainstream-moderate variety, and Nothing in Shiva’s speech would have raised any eyebrows if the words had tumbled from Barack Obama’s lips. His appeals for “love, love, love” cannot be described as hate-speech without resorting to deliberate duplicity.

The Patriot Prayer group that organized the San Francisco event is also a poor candidate for Nazi cabal, though both Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee have depicted it as such. The group is once again led by a minority, Japanese-American Joey Gibson. Gibson has no history of supporting or initiating violence, though he does have a history of being pepper sprayed by AntiFa.

While I try to avoid extremists from any quadrant of the political spectrum, I see little evidence that free speech is one of their major concerns. AntiFa, a self-styled communist organization, is notorious for their willingness to shut it down. This seems consistent with their ideological leanings, as every leftist regime in history has stifled the press and suppressed dissent. In this everyone-is-a-Nazi media climate, I have to do independent research to separate the real extremists from those spuriously accused.

But even if the unlikely Klansman turns out to be a free speech advocate, I’m still proud to call myself a free speech absolutist. Free speech is a brilliant concept, even if the odd, bad apple misuses it. It is with free speech that we challenge and expose toxic ideas, of which governments are not immune. I find the alternative unthinkable.

I’m using my free speech to call the media to task. Your partisan narrative has overtaken your commitment to the truth. The press is an invaluable safeguard for our liberties, and has a weighty responsibility to keep us informed. When you misuse this privilege, you risk becoming agents of oppression. In your fawning infatuation with AntiFa, you undermine the public’s interests, and yours. This group is open about who they are. They are not friends of liberty, and oppose the very liberty which sustains the press. So please, as guardians and beneficiaries of the First Amendment, resist every urge to set yourselves against it.

I like Nazis less than you do; my grandfather died fighting them. But think carefully before you associate free speech with extremism. Free speech is not the weapon of extremists, it is our foremost defense against them.

Michael Eubanks

South Williamsport

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