No constitutional amendment is more misunderstood than the First, despite being just a handful of plain English words. And there’s nothing like Tucker Carlson’s firing at Fox News to bring out the ignorance in full force, with too many people thinking that a right to free speech somehow also means a right to a platform.
Here’s the full text of the amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The amendment is simple, listing critical limits on the government’s ability to restrict free expression. It starts with religion, saying the government can’t impose religion—it’s literally the first line of the First Amendment. Doesn’t stop conservatives from trying, like in Texas, where just this week the state senate passed a bill requiring schools to display the 10 Commandments in every single classroom.
The next part is equally simple and is the topic of this story: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Key word there? Congress, aka the government. This was so critically important to the Founding Fathers that the press is literally the only profession explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, not to mention protected. The Supreme Court has officially extended that restriction to the federal government and state governments as well (through the 14th Amendment).
That means if someone is shouted down on Twitter, that’s not a First Amendment violation. If nonviolent protests scare Marjorie Taylor Greene away in New York City, that’s also not a First Amendment issue. The protesters have a First Amendment right to chant in the streets (and to peaceably assemble as well, also in the First Amendment). It also means any website or app can ban individuals. They are private businesses, not the government. The First Amendment certainly doesn’t require Elon Musk to allow (and boost) Nazis and genocidal maniacs on Twitter. Federal courts have affirmed this time and time again.
And if Fox News decides it’s tired of losing hundreds of millions of dollars to Tucker Carlson’s behavior and white supremacist message, well then, that also has nothing to do with the First Amendment.
Would it kill her to actually look at the First Amendment? It’s not hard. Just a few words. Every single line of that tweet is moronic.
No, the First Amendment isn’t “gone,” as the government had nothing to do with Carlson getting shit-canned. No one, ever, will someday ask “why didn’t anyone say anything or try to stop it?” because no one has asked that about Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly. She shouldn’t worry: Fox News will soon have someone likely worse than Carlson in that time slot. And Carlson’s voice hasn’t been extinguished–he’s already releasing his deep thoughts on Twitter. Not silenced, just not working at Fox News anymore.
Still, Greene wasn’t alone. Plenty of MAGA deplorables were quick to jump aboard the “First Amendment is dead” narrative.
Fox News is dead? That would be a surprise to the morning show crew who showed up today just like every other day.
Imagine thinking that Sen. Chuck Schumer could call up Rupert Murdoch and be like, “Yo Rup wassup! I’ve got something to run by you …”
Here’s one that shocked me: “Constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax Monday that Tucker Carlson’s parting ways with Fox News is ‘the fallout’ from the settlement that the network ‘foolishly’ made with Dominion Voting Systems and that it’s a “very bad day for the First Amendment.” We could certainly expect Newsmax to try and capitalize on Fox News’ woes, but getting a once-respected (I think?) constitutional scholar to claim this had anything to do with the First Amendment was bizarre. Dershowitz knows darn well he’s full of shit, but doesn’t care.
This nonsensical hysteria isn’t just coming from the right, however. The tankie left is in on it as well.
If you don’t follow our Ukrainian coverage, you may be wondering what a “tankie” is. In short, tankies are unreconstructed lefties who think American imperialism is the root of all of the world’s evils, and no one else can be imperialist. For example, Noam Chomsky claimed that Russia was justified in invading Ukraine because of American imperialism—the eastward expansion of NATO. Supposedly, everyone is blameless in the face of American expansionism. I’ve written about them here, here, here, here, here, and here.
They’re called “tankies” because they continued to defend the “worker’s paradise” Soviet Union after their violent suppression of pro-independence revolutions in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) using tanks.
As perhaps the lone prominent pro-Putin voice in American media, and one with a ginormous platform, tankies were obviously drawn to Tucker Carlson. Ardent tankie Glenn Greenwald was a frequent guest of his, and just last week, Carlson had Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on his show to peddle patently false Russian propaganda.
And of course, leave it to the Russians to try and make Carlson’s firing a First Amendment violation.
Sergey Lavrov is Russia’s foreign minister (akin to our secretary of State), and is in New York for a United Nations gathering. He was furious because the U.S. refused visas for his traveling press corps (all government media, there is no free press in Russia).
They [denying his traveling press corps] have nothing to do with Americans so-called democratic views of freedom of speech. Of course the First Amendment to the United States Constitution apparently means nothing in practice, and perhaps it would be useful to consider how things are with Freedom of Speech in the United States. I heard that Tucker Carlson has left Fox News.
It is a choice for Lavrov to attempt to make this about the First Amendment, which has nothing to do with Carlson or Fox News, when his own government has imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for writing a story about how the Ukraine war was undoing Russia’s economy. It’s even worse for ordinary Russians, where having the wrong opinion is a one-way ticket to prison. You don’t even have to say anything! Merely holding up a blank piece of paper is enough to get one jailed.
In Russia, you can even get sentenced to prison for things your children think.
The irony is that if any of that happened in the United States, then yes, now that would be a violation of the First Amendment! While we may snicker at the ignorance of Marjorie Taylor Greene, it is truly problematic that many can’t seem to grasp our most basic, fundamental rights. And Tucker Carlson being guaranteed a job at Fox News isn’t one of them.
The past week seems to have packed in a month’s worth of news. Markos and Kerry tackle it all, from Joe Biden’s big announcement to Tucker Carlson’s early retirement from Fox News.
