The Trump administration’s attempt to censor late-night entertainment is an abuse of power, and the FCC’s threat to revoke broadcast licenses based on political viewpoints is a clear violation of the First Amendment.
The Trump administration has been using its power to intimidate critics, punish dissent, and redefine the boundaries of speech, culminating in the president’s declaration that he will label antifa as a terrorist organization, which is a move straight out of the authoritarian playbook.
The Trump administration has made $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting and has attacked the free press by filing a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, according to the ACLU, which argues that these actions violate the First Amendment.
Worth Rises, a nonprofit organization, has criticized the Federal Communications Commission for delaying the implementation of new rules capping phone rates for incarcerated individuals, and is instead rewarding the prison telecom corporations and their profit-sharing partners.
Prison journalists are fighting for their right to free speech and to hold truth to power, despite facing intimidation, threats, and censorship, in order to give voice to the most marginalized populations and to help dismantle and silence journalistic voices from within the walls of this nation’s penitentiaries.