MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-03-01 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Chinese tackets from the Democrats
|
Opinion | ‘Just Asking’ for Censorship
Kimberley A. Strassel
6-7 minutes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/just-asking-for-censorship-11614295623?mod=opinion_featst_pos2
The Democratic House majority this week put on a bold demonstration of
its newest governing strategy—one it continues to perfect. Call it the
“Just Asking” tactic.
The exhibit took place at Wednesday’s House Energy and Commerce
subcommittee hearing on “disinformation and extremism in the media.”
While lawmakers have spent years fretting over “disinformation” on
social media, this was the first time they used a hearing to accuse news
outlets of deliberately fomenting it.
The precursor to the hearing was a revealing letter sent Monday by two
California Democrats, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney. The duo
demanded the CEOs of a dozen cable, satellite and broadband providers
explain what “response” they intended to take to the “right-wing media
ecosystem” that is spreading “lies” and “disinformation” that enable
“insurrection” and provokes “non-compliance with public health
guidelines.” Specifically they asked each CEO: “Are you planning to
continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax and OANN . . .? If so, why?”
Just asking.
When Republican members of the committee and outside groups shouted
censorship, Ms. Eshoo shrugged. “The First Amendment, my friends, starts
with four words: Congress shall make no laws,” and she, Anna Eshoo, had
no intention of enacting a law to shut down conservatives. She was
merely asking “strong, important questions”—i.e., whether private
regulated companies understand that (if they know what’s good for them)
they’ll do the dirty work for her, thereby saving her the hassle of
complying with the Constitution. She was just asking.
And why wouldn’t she? It’s been working so well for Democrats in other
areas. Left-wing activists and politicians spent four years “just
asking” social media companies what they intended to do about
“disinformation”—today’s code word for conservative ideas. An emboldened
left-leaning Silicon Valley is now happily doing Democrats’ bidding,
censoring like mad. Twitter, Facebook and others are banning prominent
conservatives from their platforms. Twitter locked the account of a
newspaper (the New York Post) for the sin of accurately reporting
unflattering news about the Democratic presidential nominee’s son.
Google and Apple dropped Parler from their app stores. Amazon this week
jumped into the virtual book-burning business, purging “When Harry
Became Sally” by Ryan T. Anderson, a three-year-old book that addresses
tough questions about gender identity.
“Right now, the greatest threat to free speech in this country is not
any law passed by the government—the First Amendment stands as a
bulwark,” says Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. “The
threat comes in the form of legislating by letterhead. Politicians have
realized that they can silence the speech of those with different
political viewpoints by public bullying.”
What was new this week was Democrats’ brazenness: their shocking and
open targeting of news organizations. The left has long worked to shut
down speech with which it disagrees, but officials in the past did it
with more subterfuge. It came via legislation for “campaign finance
reform,” or via their successful effort to push the IRS to target
conservative nonprofits; or via Sen. Dick Durbin’s campaign to pressure
companies out of funding free-market nonprofits. Liberal activists have
honed intimidation campaigns, threatening boycotts and other actions
against companies that advertise on disfavored platforms or donate to
right-leaning groups.
Congress’s engagement this week is an acknowledgment of the limits of
that activist effort. As Angelo Carusone, president of the left-wing
outfit Media Matters keeps noting, activists have discovered that their
campaign against Fox’s advertisers isn’t enough, since Fox gets much of
its revenue from subscription fees. So the only way to kill it off is to
bully cable companies into dropping the network. Activists began a
grassroots effort to do that last year but haven’t made headway. Enter
Ms. Eshoo and Mr. McNerney. (Disclosure: Fox’s and the Journal’s parent
companies share common ownership, and I am a Fox News contributor.)
Democrats may have a harder time bending these providers to their
demands than they did Big Tech. Carriage decisions are governed by
contract law; disappearing a cable channel isn’t as easy as disappearing
a Twitter account. And customers would likely revolt, with financial
implications for providers.
There’s also growing political risk from the other side. The GOP finally
understands what is happening and is beginning to counter it. Gov. Ron
DeSantis’s vow to protect Florida’s citizens from Big Tech overreach is
a shot across the censors’ bows. There’s also this week’s letter to
cable providers from West Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Patrick
Morrisey urging them to think “very carefully” about how they respond to
Democratic pressure, given any wide deplatforming of conservative
channels could very easily raise questions of “collusive, coordinated
and anticompetitive behavior.”
But don’t doubt that Democrats will escalate their overt demands that
companies act as their political enforcers, outsourcing the censorship
the Constitution forbids. And don’t buy the excuse that this is
“oversight.” As law professor Jonathan Turley told Ms. Eshoo at the
hearing: “Making a statement and putting a question mark at the end of
it doesn’t change the import of the statement.” This isn’t just asking.
It’s an order.
Write to kim-at-wsj.com.
--
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