Rubio Boldly Strikes Down Censorship at State While Official Efforts at Censorship Return in New Form

​In a recent op-ed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio promises to “close the book” on “the weaponization of America’s own government to silence, censor, and suppress the free speech of ordinary Americans.” It’s a laudable objective and one for which Protect The 1st is immensely grateful. But Secretary Rubio and his colleagues should take into account the dangers that arise from the tendency to explore new ways to punish the speech of political opponents and media critics.   
 
Rubio’s choice of venue, The Federalist, was a shrewd one. This publication was one of ten “riskiest online news outlets” identified by the Global Disinformation Index, a British organization funded in part by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). The intent was to discourage companies from advertising in these publications and platforms. Rubio announced the closure of the GEC in his editorial.
 
GEC’s efforts, as we’ve written, tried to kill conservative publications. It also constituted a “black box” that allowed federal agencies to filter content moderation requests to social media platforms under the guise of combating “disinformation.” We have no problem with official efforts to identify the propaganda of foreign terrorists and hostile regimes so long as officials are willing to make their case in public. But GEC was un-American, both in conception and in operation. It would be no less concerning if the government was policing liberal outlets like Mother Jones or The Nation.

So, good riddance to the GEC. But just because Secretary Rubio shut down one illiberal outfit doesn’t get the administration off the hook for its own efforts to coerce news outlets and organizations into toeing the official line.
 
This was brought to light in the controversy over 60 Minutes, facing a lawsuit from President Trump over alleged “voter interference” owing to its allegedly duplicitous editing of an interview with candidate Kamala Harris. CBS, the network which airs the show, is owned by Paramount Global – a company currently in merger negotiations with Skydance Media. Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has urged a settlement with Trump, no doubt to pave the way for eventual FTC approval of the deal. In turn, Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes last night addressed the resignation of executive producer Bill Owens and admitted on his show that it is losing some of its journalistic discretion. By holding a lawsuit over the heads of a major media conglomerate, this administration has successfully exerted control over a formerly independent, and historically vaunted, news program. One may fairly judge CBS to be biased, but it is not the business of government to police speech, biases included.
 
Similarly, the Federal Communications Commission is taking jawboning to its extremes, threatening Comcast (owner of MSNBC) and Warner Bros. Discovery over coverage of the deportation of Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.    
 
The administration would do well to remember that the First Amendment protects the people from government action – not the other way around. Conservatives would do well to continue to dismantle the censorship apparatus, not pioneer new forms that could, once again, be used to throttle conservative speech by the next administration. While we applaud Secretary Rubio for ridding us of the GEC and all its poisoned fruit, everyone who takes the First Amendment seriously should be willing to call out the current administration when it engages in the same sort of harassment it opposes.

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