The editorial page of Sunday’s New York Times issued a 2,500-word defense of free expression, “Free Speech Is Under Threat.” Welcome, but overdue and also hypocritical, given the Times’ trend over the last few years of trying to shut down speech it dislikes and that it can’t monitor or control. And don’t wait for the paper to apologize for or acknowledge their role in the squelching of free expression, either.
The editorial was published at nytimes.com and it has been criticized by the left. Many are complaining disingenuously that “cancel culture” — when conservatives and others who don’t follow the liberal line are kicked off social media, and their bosses pressured to fire them — is fine, because it’s not being done by the government, and even qualifies as its own form of protest speech.
It began strong:
All the tolerance and openness that our society boasts, Americans are losing a basic right as citizens in a country free to express their views and opinions publicly without being shamed and shunned.
But the Times However, he was able to show that the right wasn’t all to blame.
….Many on the right, for all their braying about cancel culture, As a defense against rapidly changing societies, some have adopted a more severe form of censoriousness, which would prohibit books and stifle teachers.
A casual perusal of the paper’s recent product proves that free speech was (until this morning, apparently) a major problem for the TimeAt least, when it was used by those who disagreed with the speech. Begin with October’s shameful cover story 2020 New York Times Magazine by lawyer/professor Emily Bazelon: “…increasingly, scholars of constitutional law, as well as social scientists, are beginning to question the way we have come to think about the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech….”
Former Times reporter Taylor Lorenz spread misinformation as a censorious “hall monitor” for the TimesWhile others in the tech team warned of the dangers associated with unmonitored chatroom speech,
In June 2019 the paper ran an op-ed calling for the “doxxing” — revealing personal information on private citizens for the purpose of targeted harassment — of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents.
The Times again showed its true feelings for free speech when the paper’s resident “child mob” of woke staffers forced the resignation of then-opinion editor James Bennet in June 2020 for having the audacity to publish an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton, calling for deploying the military to quell rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.
And remember the feverish lefty calls for investigating the fascism of the universal hand gesture known as the OK sign? This insanity also ran the paper.
Flashforward to 2022, and it’s warning of the dangers of forcing people out of their jobs for expressing certain views. Just a little too late.
Christian humor site The Babylon Bee made humorless, censor-happy tech reporter Kevin Roose huff over how the Bee calling itself “a satire site” was some kind of dodge to avoid Facebook’s “fact-checking” program, accusing the Bee of “misinformation under the guise of comedy.”
This list could go on.
It is important to read Times’ new editorial closely to recognize that it’s the so-called liberal side most intolerant of free expression, while the conservative side is more hesitant about speaking its mind in public for fear of real-world backlash.
The support shown for stopping such speech was higher among those who identified as Democrats and Liberals.
About Post Author
