John Donald O’Shea is a retired circuit court judge and a regular columnist.
I always trusted that American newspapers, radio and TV would be our foremost and staunchest defenders of our First Amendment’s guarantees of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. It appears that I was terribly naive.
I always thought that the American press hated the thought of government censorship and previous restraints. Here again, I was dead wrong!
I always thought that the American press would scream “bloody murder” at any government attempt to suppress coverage of news unfavorable to the government or a particular political party. It appears, I was a fool.
Instead, a huge segment of the American press – including this newspaper – seems to be operating on the premise that “If it’s not reported, it didn’t happen!”
By way of background, in 2020, Twitter admittedly, and Facebook and Google, in all probability, at the urgings of agents of the US Government conspired and colluded to deny the American people information about the “Hunter Biden laptop story” — information that could possibly have changed the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Had that now admittedly truthful information been made public, and further and fully investigated by an honest and vigilant press worthy of its name, a few thousand voters in three key states might have voted for Trump instead of Biden. Unfortunately, we will never know.
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Would it have made a difference to the voters had they known that in Hunter Biden’s dealings with Communist China, that Hunter was demanding 10% for the “Big Guy?” Who else other than candidate Joe Biden could the “Big Guy” have been. What else could “10 held by H for the big guy” have meant?
The New York Post reported on the story. Whether the New York Post’s story was truthful was for the American people to decide; not for political operatives in the US government to decide.
This information was suppressed on numerous dishonest, make-weight premises: it was hacked, it was “Russian election meddling,” “it was disinformation,” “it was misinformation,” “it was false,” etc.
The problem with all these justifications,” is that the First Amendment provides that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or freedom of the press. The determination of whether a story is “hacked, Russian meddling, disinformation, misinformation or false” is left exclusively to the American people – not to the US government!
The government of the United States has no power to censor political speech. Censorship is not one of the “express powers” granted to any of the three branches of the US Government.
Indeed, the US Supreme Court has long ago held that all three branches of the government are expressly prohibited by the 1st Amendment from abridging freedom of speech or the press.
In the 1857 Dred Scott case, the US Supreme Court held that if Congress lacked constitutional power to do something, it could not delegate that non-existent power to any creature of government, such as a territorial government or agency.
I know of no federal court case that states that where the US government is expressly forbidden to do something under the 1st Amendment — such as abridging free speech or free press — that it can evade that 1st Amendment’s prohibition by acting through private individuals or private corporations . If that’s the law, the 1st Amendment is a dead letter.
And that brings me to the crux of this op ed — the refusal of the mainstream media — including this newspaper — to report on the release of Twitter’s internal emails by Elon Musk — emails that Musk has given an independent journalist, Matt Taibbi, relative to the Hunter Biden laptop.
Remember, that at this point in time, even the NY Times has conceded that the Hunter Biden laptop story is true.
On December 2, 2022, Taibbi released the first thread of Twitter emails. You can read them yourselves – but sadly not in this newspaper.
The First Amendment grants the government no power whatsoever to impose a “prior restraint” to prevent the American people from seeing a story, and from forming their own judgment as to its truth or falsity. It is for the American people, and not the government, to decide whether the account is Russian meddling, disinformation, misinformation, or utter falsehood. In America, given our First Amendment, whether the information is meddling, disinformation, etc., is a question to be determined in the “public forum” – the “marketplace of ideas.” The premise of the First Amendment is that if the people hear all sides of the issue, they will come to the correct judgment. There is no other rule consistent with the operation of a democratic republic.
The suppression of speech – especially political speech – is the hallmark of totalitarian government – of Hitler, Stalin, the Castro brothers, the Chinese Communists…
The mainstream media has a duty to let the American people see what their government and its agents have done to emasculate the 1st Amendment. So does this newspaper.
And what is more chilling, is that this may be but the “tip of the iceberg.”
John Donald O’Shea, of Moline, is a retired circuit judge and a regular columnist.
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