Not An Absolute Right
I have always been an advocate for First Amendment rights, and the right of journalists in this country to report.
But those are not absolute rights, and quite often misunderstood.
The First Amendment means government cannot prevent you from speaking based on your content. I can prevent you from standing in my front yard and making a speech…because I’m not the government and that is my private property. Similarly, government can impose time, place and manner restrictions on speech; you cannot use a bullhorn in the middle of the night on a public street because of the disruption to everyone else’s security and their rights.
Journalists have the right to report, but not an absolute right to gather the information which they report; in fact, no greater right of access than anyone else, although various entities do give reporters the privilege of enhanced access.
If I know that a crime is about to be committed, and I join the group about to commit the crime so I can report on it in real time, referring to the group as “we” and “us” and selectively turning off the camera and microphone when details about the crime are being revealed in advance, I have crossed the line from being a journalist…it makes me a co-conspirator.
Would we really think that I could join a group of bank robbers as they enter the bank, and then claim my hands are clean simply because I’m a journalist?
These thoughts come to mind, and are important, as the misreporting of Don Lemon’s arrest continues. Disrupting a church service is a federal crime. He apparently was in on the thing from the start, verbalizing solidarity with those about to commit the crime, and used the situation to his advantage to gain clicks on whatever social media platform he uses.
Actually, the arrest is the best thing for his career…because when was the last time his name even came up in conversation before he joined the mob that terrorized Christian worshipers on a Sunday morning.
He was arrested not for covering peaceful protests; he was arrested for materially participating in a federal crime—one which was originally put on the books to protect black churches from the KKK.
Facts matter, always. Those are a few being left out of some so-called reporting of late.
