On Easter Sunday I wrote about Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility falling on the same date, and the fact that people were taking that coincidence out of context. That post can be found here:
Since then the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said in response:1
"We’ve been hearing out there, a lot of misinformation done on purpose"
That’s a problem. It’s a problem because it is a lie. It’s an even bigger problem because the words ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ have been used to tag speech that people and institutions with power are seeking to have suppressed, hidden from the public. And far too often, private companies have gone along with those desires.
The truth is, as pointed out in my post on Easter, that many of the concerns posted about the President’s actions lacked context. They failed to explain that the Transgender Day of Visibility has always fallen on March 31, but that the date of Easter varies from year to year.
So, context was lacking. But, it was not ‘misinformation’ as the White House claimed.
President Biden signed a proclamation stating that:
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility.”2
For the White House to claim that those asserting that the President proclaimed March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility are spreading ‘misinformation’ is absurd. It is nothing but a message to the media that the White House would prefer that they stop reporting on the story.
This is a threat to Free Speech. In fact, all discussion about ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ by government and governmental officials is a threat to Free Speech. It is not the proper role of government to decide what is true or not true, what people should or shouldn’t say or read.
But the press also needs to stop stoking up false fires that do nothing but serve to anger people and grow divisions within our society.
In the runup to Easter, the Daily Caller published a story claiming that the Biden White House had banned children from submitting Easter Eggs with religious themes from an egg decorating contest. That story was picked up quite widely, I stumbled across it in a number of outlets.
The Daily Caller later retracted3 the story because that policy has been in place for decades, through both Democratic and Republican administrations. But how many fewer people read the retraction than the initial story? How much less publicity did it receive?
In September of last year, a Gallup poll showed that 29% of adults in the United States have “not very much trust” that mass media reports the news fully, fairly, and accurately. 39% indicate that they have “none at all.”4
Mass media, newspapers, network and cable news, and the rest have an obligation to society to report the news honestly. The fact that 68% of the adults in this country think that they do not do so is a very serious problem.
It is a problem that impacts the Freedom of Speech, because if people don’t believe that the news is honest, they will have no compelling reason to defend the rights of our Fourth Estate.
Another attack on the rights of intellectual freedom are phoney and false ‘fact checks’ published by media organizations and spread far and wide.
Yesterday saw an example of this with a Fact Check from CNN, stating that “Trump falsely claims, again, that he had to post bond to appeal civil fraud decision”5
But President Trump’s claim isn’t false at all. Only by taking his claim completely out of context can one torture logic enough to somehow come up with this fraudulent fact check.
Yes, it is technically true that President Trump could have appealed the decision of the court without posting bond, but had he done so his assets would have been seized and sold in order to satisfy the judgement. The only way available for him to appeal the ruling, without suffering massive punishment was to post the bond. Post a bond and appeal to a higher court, or lose what it has taken a lifetime to build. Hardly a choice.
Nonsense like this phony fact check further erode trust in media.
But more importantly they are an attack on Freedom of Speech. By claiming that truthful speech is false, the reach of truthful speech is suppressed.
Book bans are very rare in the United States, but they do happen. I remember as a very young adult when Iran threatened attacks on sellers of the book The Satanic Verses and put a price on the author’s head. I ran out and bought a copy of the book, believing it important to show support for those opposing censorship. The next banned book that I remember purchasing was Sex by Madonna. For the same reason.
Today’s culture wars have brought book bans back to popular mind. We hear a lot about conservative people trying to have books that tackle themes around sex and gender banned from schools and libraries.
But it’s not just conservative people. It’s liberal people as well. The book Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier is just one example.6
If we hope to protect everything that this country stands for, we can’t work to ban books that we disagree with. We can’t on the one hand defend books that explore issues of gender from a liberal point of view, while trying to ban books that explore those same issues from a conservative point of view. We are either for Freedom of Speech, and the freedom to read, or we aren’t.
But we do well to remember that over the long march of history, those that ban and burn books have never turned out to be the good guys.
Sticking with Irreversible Damage, in 2021 the American Booksellers Association sent out copies of the book to bookstores as part of a regular promotional program.
This is an association that claims to be a staunch defender of Free Speech, the right to read, and it works hard to promote Banned Books Week each year.7
But it too is a gleeful soldier in the cause of censorship.
After sending out promotional copies of Irreversible Damage to bookstores it apologized, and the apology contained the claims:
“An anti-trans book was included in our July mailing to members. This is a serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s policies, values, and everything we believe and support. It is inexcusable.”8
Books are not violence.
Giving someone a book is not violence.
Mrs. Bailey, bashing me upside the head with a thick hardback is undoubtedly violence.
But sending a book, to a bookseller, for their consideration is in no way violence.
The American Booksellers Association is disingenuous in its claims to advocate for banned books, and its apology is an absurd lie.
But of course, there is a reason to this madness.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is strong. But, if enough people can somehow be convinced that books and words are violence, the censors know that they just might develop a crack that can be exploited whereby the rights guaranteed by that Amendment can be chipped away.
These are just a few examples of ways in which the freedom of speech is under assault. If we hope for our children and grandchildren to grow up with all of the freedoms and joys we experienced, we must stand against these continual attacks on free thought.
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/white-house-blames-misinformation-transgender-day-visibility-outrage
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/29/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility-2024/
https://dailycaller.com/2024/03/29/white-house-religious-easter-egg-designs-national-guard-art-contest-biden/
https://news.gallup.com/poll/512861/media-confidence-matches-2016-record-low.aspx
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/02/politics/fact-check-donald-trump-post-bond-appeal-civil-fraud/index.html
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/liberal-censorship-banned-books-american-booksellers-association-20240402.html
https://www.bookweb.org/abfe/banned-books-week
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/aba-apologises-sending-out-transgender-craze-book-1272403
I'm more a libertarian or a classic liberal with a strong leaning towards a government that promotes individual agency and this is about all the political rhetoric i will espouse. All free peoples are granted rights by their creator and grant privilege's to the government, not the other way around. Liberty and individualism are everything for the common good and in my mind the only end to that is where your right to do something infringes on another. The Mob is vile, and social media is its bullhorn.