This seems fine.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour has a new interview with James Comey and one exchange caught the attention of some. This clip perfectly illustrates the difference between European and American ideals of free speech.

(Clip is 30 seconds)

CNN's @camanpour asks @Comey if he should've used the FBI to censor "lock her up" chants because they amount to "hate speech." She also says the chants could be "dangerous." Comey reminds her that's not how we do things in the United States. https://t.co/5yvezKgGuT pic.twitter.com/02P5zdP0iZ — Amber Athey (@amber_athey) April 2, 2019

It’s worth watching the clip because you really feel the indignation and lack of respect for basic rights in Amanpour’s delivery. She honestly thinks that the FBI should have somehow shut down political rally chants as hate speech. She also opines that such chants could be “dangerous” as further justification for this.

All of this is fairly rich given the enormous amount of disgusting speech that’s been thrown at Trump from prominent Democratic politicians. I don’t recall CNN ever clutching their pearls over that. For some reason they only describe speech that goes against their narrative as threatening. Odd, it’s almost as if it’s purely political. Spending two years fantasizing about Trump being put out to pasture for treason, though? That’s no issue at all.

We could write this off as Amanpour just having a British mindset when it comes to freedom of expression, but I think it’s more pervasive than that. Her thinking is mainstream among the Democratic party. We’ve seen many calls for laws against “hate speech,” which is just code for censoring viewpoints they don’t like. Back in 2015, over 50% of Democrats supported such laws. That number has only grown over the last four years.

What Amanpour says here is almost certainly not a minority view at a network like CNN. If they could, they would gladly shut up anyone who disagrees with them. You see it every day with those like CNN’s Brian Stelter constantly stumping for the fall of Fox News. Amanpour is also not a bit player. She’s their top international “anchor,” which is what CNN calls their partisan ideologues when they want to gaslight the public about their objectivity.

With Europe devolving further and further, it’s important that Americans continue to recognize the immense value freedom of speech provides us. That means tolerating some speech you may not like, and you don’t get to shut other people up by arbitrarily deciding their words are “dangerous” or “hate speech.” If we ever reach that point, we might as well pack it in as a country.

Lastly, I’m sure the rest of the interview is filled with many things that reinforce how much of a bad actor he is, but Comey at least gets it right here when he says it’s not the government’s role to shut down such speech. So kudos I guess.

This is the most insane question ever asked by someone who makes a living due to the 1st Amendment. https://t.co/FeTuwTiSwd — Lee Doren (@LDoren) April 2, 2019

————————————————-

Enjoying the read? Please visit my archive and check out some of my latest articles. I’ve got a new twitter! Please help by following @bonchieredstate.