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Free speech should not be a question. It is a right that we, as Americans, treasure and fight to hold on to.
Since the second election of Donald Trump, and specifically since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, free speech has been attacked on a larger scale than we have seen since the “Red Scare” of the 50s. According to an NPR article from September 13th, 30 people have been fired or put on leave because of social media posts criticizing Kirk. Republican politicians like Vice President JD Vance and prominent conservative online voices have encouraged their followers to report people who they see post or say negative things about Kirk. “Call them out, and hell, call their employer,” said JD Vance in a speech a few weeks ago. The encouragement of personal retaliation gives way for the scope of attacks against free speech to widen as individual people to feel emboldened to follow through on the wishes of leaders.
Additionally, the Jimmy Kimmel Late Night Show was suspended following Kimmel’s comments concerning Charlie Kirk’s killer. Kimmel said in his monologue on September 15, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” The network ABC suspended the show under unusual pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, according to the New York Times.
The monologue circulated the Internet and was met with backlash from conservative influencers, as well as Fox News. Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, publicly condemned and hinted at retaliation against ABC. This scared Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliate stations, who then announced they would cut the show on their stations. Disney and ABC followed suit after this announcement.
The suspension was met with fierce backlash from Hollywood and the general public. Fellow late night hosts John Stewart and Stephen Colbert defended their colleague on the air, and there were protests in LA outside of Kimmel's stage doors. Due to the widespread pressure, ABC resumed airing on Tuesday night, a week after ABC had suspended it. That night, the show had some of the highest ratings that it had seen in years.
The media being pressured by the federal government to silence a voice in opposition to the President is extremely dangerous, and sets the precedent of attacks on free speech at a higher level.
In some ways, attacks on free speech are affecting teachers and academics the hardest. According to a Guardian article from September 25, the group Scholars at Risk found that there have already been 40 attacks on academic freedom since the Trump administration took office. In the scope of the killing of Kirk, NBC News found that “State education agencies in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas are all investigating reports about teachers’ comments about Kirk.” UCLA, Clemson, Texas University, and more have put faculty on leave for “hate-speech” and "inciting political violence.” Specifically, Texas University recently fired Thomas Alter, an associate professor of history, for comments he made at a Zoom meeting as part of the Revolutionary Socialism Conference.
There is a video of his speech that has circulated on X where Alter says, “Without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world — that of the United States?” and referring to anarchists, “While their actions are laudable, it should be asked: to what purpose do they serve?” Alter participated in an event not sanctioned by the university where he spoke freely about what he believed, not a revolutionary idea. After circling the Internet, these Constitutionally-protected comments resulted in his being firing from Texas State University.
According to The Texas Tribune, Alter’s lawyer argued that “Dr. Alter was terminated because he espoused views that are unpopular in today’s conservative, politically-charged climate, in violation of his First Amendment right to free speech.” The actions by Texas State University bring us back to the time of McCarthyism, where academics specifically were targeted because of their connection with communism or the left. This was a dangerous time for free speech in America, and lately, it seems we’re sliding back towards it.
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