Free speech is alive and well in the United States.
That is, as long as you agree with the president.
The First Amendment protects our right to speak freely without facing legal punishments for an opinion we may have.
Over the last decade, we have seen that it’s getting increasingly difficult to speak your mind without being heavily criticized or even have your platform of speech taken away.
Debate should be encouraged as long as it’s done in a respectful manner. Personal attacks go beyond where the line should be drawn.
It is alarming that simply speaking your mind or making a comment seen as controversial can get you bombarded by critics.
However, it’s clear that our president has certain views and only respects those that share the same feelings. It is sad to see that unless your words are appealing to our government, they are frowned upon and punishable.
We, as a nation, have all seen the downfall of freedom of speech with the recent incident involving late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel made a comment two weeks ago on his show regarding the assassin of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
“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,” Kimmel said Sept. 15.
Two days later, his show was taken off the air.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, called it “Great News for America” and said, “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
It seems Trump and his administration wanted for Kimmel’s platform to be taken from him.
Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, insinuated beforehand that if ABC did not take action against Kimmel, the FCC would have more work to do.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
ABC attempted to take the live show off the air permanently. However, hundreds of celebrities including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks signed an open letter condemning the government’s threats. Talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart sarcastically criticized the government’s initiative to silence the media.
ABC reversed course and let Kimmel’s show resume on Sept. 23. Now, Kimmel is back at his desk.
This situation is a clear representation of our government trying to limit media freedom.
Is it really freedom of speech if there is only freedom to say certain things?
The selective repercussion on media freedom is overt.
This situation was just the beginning of what we can foresee as an ambush on talk shows.
The official Instagram page for the White House shared Trumps post on Truth Social regarding the Jimmy Kimmel situation.
The post states that on top of the removal of Kimmel, he insists that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers be next.
“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” he said.
This is a prime example of the opposite opinion being considered wrong or limited to speak about.
I believe as a nation we need to fight back. Letting this slide will only worsen the outbursts from our administration.
