Support the 1st Amendment--ALL of it!

Editorial by Leonard Lenny Vasbinder
August 23, 2018

Many of you are seeing the cries (pardon the pun) of the media claiming they are "under attack" mostly because President Donald J. Trump calls out many of them as "fake news." There has been a movement going on for the past few weeks from editors, journalists, TV news personalities, etc., protesting them being "under attack." The Student Press Law Center has joined in so that student newspapers will also be writing editorials about the topic. The Society of Professional Journalists has been part of the movement from its inception.

Well, here is mine.

Journalists and newscasters have sat on their hands (and butts) for the past many years while freedom of speech was under attack by the politically correct crowd, mostly because so many journalists were on the side of the PC movement shutting down the rights of people on the right. Now, they are seeing what the rest of us have been seeing for a decade or more.

Believe me, college campuses are even worse than what the rest of society is seeing.

I am a strong believer in the 1st Amendment (and that pesky 2nd Amendment that protects the 1st). While I understand the media not liking people screaming at them when they are doing live remotes ("CNN SUCKS!") writing about them in a negative way, calling them the "fake news" that they often are, calling them "the enemy of the people," etc., unfortunately, they have brought most of this on themselves by not being fair and balanced against the PC movement and the left-wing college campus movement that has been shutting down the freedom of speech part of the 1st Amendment.

I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right but maybe, just maybe, enough reporters, journalists, newscasters, and editors will start to stand up for the rights of ALL people to utilize their 1st Amendment rights as part of their "cries" about their part of the 1st Amendment being "under attack."

They have to realize that the people's right to free speech and complaining about the LSM (left-leaning mainstream media) is just as much a part of the 1st Amendment as the freedom of the press--maybe they are seeing things more clearly now and will defend ALL people from attacks, but I doubt it.