FASCISM 101: The slow-creep assault on Freedom of the Press

The arrests of two journalists last week are a warning to all of the rest: Don’t disparage the Trump Regime – or you will be next. This is Fascism:  Rule by terror and fear, and eliminate trustworthy, factual news outlets.

What we have seen this past year is the incremental escalation of attacks on this important First Amendment right: Freedom of the Press. The problem is that each increment normalizes what is highly abnormal and unconstitutional.

1^st Amendment press protections

“At its core, freedom of the press means the government can’t control what the media publishes,” explains the Arizona ACLU, “and it can’t punish journalists just because they reported something uncomfortable ... or critical.”

Moreover, the government:

• Can’t censor or silence a story before it’s published.
• Can’t sue journalists who have acted in good faith to be accurate and truthful.
• Can’t (in most cases) compel a journalist to reveal their sources, due to “shield laws.”
• Can’t claim to “protect national security,” in order to prevent a journalist from publishing unfavorable material.

The ROLE of the free press in American society

Scholar Ronald K.L. Collins best articulates its value: “A free press is one of the bulwarks of a free society. Without it, there can be no consent of the governed, no informed decision making, and no check on the abuses of power.”

For centuries the press has tried to demonstrate its importance, so we would not take it for granted and would champion its cause. That charge takes on extreme importance, as dictators rise worldwide – but especially within our homeland.

Our founders knew that the government could not be trusted to decide what ideas or information citizens should be allowed to hear. When truth is banished to dark corners and lies are paraded into the spotlight, how can we as citizens hope to make decisions for the benefit of all?

That is why it is imperative to spotlight the ways Donald Trump and his enablers have eroded this essential constitutional right.

The 16 growing attacks on our nation’s free press by the Trump Regime

1. The term “fake news” is proliferated by Donald Trump in 2016 and beyond. It is an oxymoron: “News” is factual and thus can’t be “fake.”
2. Berating journalists and discrediting news outlets by Trump and his administration during 1^st and 2^nd terms.
3. Purging reputable news outlets from the White House press corps and briefings, replacing with and focusing on propagandists. (The first to go were AP and Reuters, the top two most reliable news sources, which disseminate first-hand news to other outlets.)
4. Purging and resignations of respected newscasters from news outlets, and reductions caused by Trump’s anti-diversity policies. (Jim Acosta, Jennifer Rubin, Joy Reid, Robert Costa, Bill Owens, David Shipley, etc.)
5. Attacking global news, by unconstitutionally defunding and gutting staff at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees international broadcasters like Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia. The estimated audience was 427 million. This is profound, because people in countries across the globe—especially autocracies—expect and rely upon the accuracy of our news.
6. Revoking journalists’ protections (initiated by Pam Bondi) concerning government leaks, allowing seizure of documents and communications, flying in the face of constitutional protections.

At this point, we’re at Defcon 1!

15. Killing a citizen (Alex Pretti) recording federal agents: Press freedom extends to citizen journalists.
16. Unconstitutional arrests of journalists (Don Lemon and Georgia Fort) covering an anti-Trump Regime protest.

How this affects you

• Your tax dollars go toward these operations: the investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and incarcerations.
• Each free-press domino that falls means less factual news and more propaganda reaches you and your communities.
• A key strategy of state propaganda is to redirect blame away from the state, as we saw with the Pretti murder, making accountability elusive or doubtful.
• Propaganda works best when multiple media sources repeat the same information; and media consolidation is a central precursor to autocracy.  (Ex: Russia, Hungary, Turkey, etc.)
• And that makes every one of us less safe.

The good news

Although there are wins and losses in the judicial system, the courts are holding, with challenges mounted across the country for constitutional violations. With each win, a precedent is set, and good news is propagated.

Citizen reporting has increased dramatically, with whistle blowers and eye witnesses telling their stories. When right-wing news outlets don’t cover major events, like massive protests, you can count on citizens to film and distribute accounts. Independent journalists have started their own news outlets on platforms like Substack and YouTube. Each thoughtful, accurate, fact-based broadcast causes their following to grow exponentially. Plus, global reporting continues to expose the Trump Regime’s institution of fascism and its effects on the world.

And with each truthful post, there are consumers who SHARE. If you think about it, Truth sticks in the same way that Propaganda does: through repeated exposure from multiple outlets. So, if you think there is nothing you can do, you’re wrong.

My prediction

The Trump Regime’s attacks will be brought down to the individual level, become personal:

• News blackouts will become normalized: Individual journalists and reporters will find their public accounts inexplicably go down.
• Arrests and lawsuits against journalists will expand.
• Citizens will notice less access to accurate news outlets.
• Citizens will begin to see their own social-media accounts scanned for anti-Regime rhetoric, then shut down. Some will find they are prosecuted for “domestic terrorism.”

What you can do

• SHARE ACCURATE INFORMATION EVERY DAY.
• Give what you can to support independent journalists.
• Call your reps and demand that:
  • the Trump Regime uphold free-press constitutional freedoms, and
  • journalists and their sources are protected from government oppression.

It is our own failure to care for and nurture Freedom of the Press, and that is allowing Fascism to rule the day in the United States of America. We citizens bear a huge responsibility, because WE ARE THE LIGHT shining into dark places; without us, our Democracy dies.

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