Free speech is important. The first amendment is important. Free speech is one of the key building blocks of the republic in which we now live. Steve Bannon was appointed to the position of White House Chief Strategist on November 14th 2016. What followed was absolute Orwellian levels of insanity.

Steve Bannon is the former CEO of the right-leaning news outlet Breitbart News. Under his leadership Breitbart moved to the right side of the 2016 presidential election and backed Donald Trump’s candidacy for the presidency. Throughout the election cycle the news outlet found itself inundated with support of from the newly emerged Alt-Right. News coverage on the site developed over the course of the election into a hub and an opportunity for the Alt-Right movement to be heard on a platform other than places like 4chan’s anonymous /b and /pol boards. With a Trump victory on November 8th this Alt-Right movement found itself emboldened, and now looks to break its way into the mainstream political dialogue. Steve Bannon’s ascension to the role of White House Chief Strategist has been hailed by some in the Mainstream Media (MSM) as a sign that the Alt-Right will soon be a major political player in the years to come.

What followed Bannon’s appointment was a deluge of false accusations and misinformation, the vast majority of which was delivered by America’s cherished MSM. The media pointed their indignant fingers at Bannon and screeched “He’s a racist! He’s an antisemite!” But that is not even the least of it. Along with being accused of being a racist and an anti-Semite, he was accused of being a white-nationalist by CNN, a misogynist by the New York Times, and in an uncomfortable speech to the Senate Harry Reid (outgoing Senate Minority Leader) called Bannon a “champion of white supremacy.” All of these accusations are totally unfounded. They cite a small number of headlines as well as the comment section at Breitbart News as their reason for these accusations. What the MSM seems to forget is that Breitbart News, like them, is a news outlet.

Theoretically yes, Steve Bannon could have chosen to quash the Alt-Right voice on his news site if he had liked. Again, he theoretically could have mandated that the comment sections on Breitbart News be scoured for comments that could be considered offensive and have those comments and their writers be removed from the site. Breitbart News is a private company, it’s their prerogative. Instead he chose to allow these people and headlines to stay. In doing so he provided a voice to an entire movement that had no legitimate voice before.

To remove dissenting comments and to prevent headlines that one does not agree with from publication is thought policing. To stand up to the little guy and say “I do not agree with you, so I will not allow you to be heard” is, at its core, a restriction of free speech. Bannon has come under fire for allowing site-wide free speech on a news medium. Bannon’s decision is fundamentally in line with the first amendment of the United States Constitution. Conversely, to claim that Bannon had a duty to restrict dissenting opinion on Breitbart News is a textbook restriction on the free flow of ideas upon which this nation was built. For the MSM to publicly shame Bannon for not clamping down on the Alt-Right voice on Breitbart News goes directly against the spirit of the first amendment.

To restrict free speech is un-American. To try to shame someone into restricting free speech is similarly un-American. For this reason, the Mainstream Media’s treatment of Bannon since his appointment to White House Chief Strategist is un-American.