The mainstream media is criticizing an important judicial decision that bars one avenue of government censorship. From J. Peder Zane at realclearwire.com:
The progressive war on free expression hit a speed bump on July 4 when a federal judge prevented the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in its effort to police online content it deems misinformation.
In a preliminary ruling regarding a case brought by Republican attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote, “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
One might expect the mainstream media, whose very lifeblood is the First Amendment, to celebrate this decision – especially since much of the information the government sought to muzzle regarded highly-contested facts surrounded the efficacy of masks and vaccines and other issues related to COVID-19. Instead, it brought out the knives. The New York Times described the decision as a “ruling that could curtail efforts to combat false and misleading narratives about the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.” The Washington Post told its readers, “The Donald Trump-appointed judge’s move could undo years of efforts to enhance coordination between the government and social media companies.” Over at CNN, chief White House correspondent Phil Mattingly stated:
[T]he Biden administration would regularly reach out to Twitter and Facebook and other companies in kind of the early stages of their COVID response and say, this person is spreading lies about vaccines, this account is spreading misinformation that is inhibiting â?? not just our efforts, the administration’s efforts to address COVID â?? but also public health, do something about it. And often, I think more often than not, the companies would respond and say, okay. And there are emails that came out during the course of this case that that was something that I think â?? when it was explained to me at the time, I thought, alright, that makes sense, that’s probably what we should do on public health grounds.
