Young voices like mine need US business, media to fight Trump’s censorship | Opinion
Our government’s newest assault on the First Amendment is a crucial moment for every American’s future. And as a young Kansas City student looking forward to a career as a writer, the government’s overstep into curtailing our personal freedoms is unprecedented — and extremely troubling.
On Sept. 17, ABC dropped a bombshell release: The network announced it would suspend “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely because of the host’s comments about MAGA Republicans’ reaction to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The cancellation had corruption written all over it. Nexstar Media Group, owner of several ABC affiliates, was in the middle of trying to acquire Tegna, Inc. To get the deal approved, it would need it to be reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, which is headed by Brendan Carr — a close political ally of President Donald Trump, who is a frequent target of Kimmel’s satire.
When I first started writing, it took me a while to get my wings. I lacked the firepower or the confidence most writers had, and I was worried about the potential backlash from my words. I then realized I didn’t have to care what others thought, as the sky wouldn’t fall and everything would be fine — all because of our free speech rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
However, it’s become harder to have confidence in the First Amendment now.
It’s not just Jimmy Kimmel seeing himself targeted. It’s Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who was forcibly detained for calling out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and company at a press conference. It’s Ilhan Omar and Al Green, Democratic members of Congress, who were the subject of censuring votes because they disagreed with the current administration. It’s also former Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil, a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in the war with Hamas, whose future is currently in a perilous state.
We, the new generation of Americans, shouldn’t have to worry about being jailed or censored by the state for exercising our First Amendment rights. When you regulate free speech, you take a hatchet to democracy. You cannot say America is still President Ronald Reagan’s shining city upon the hill when you are cracking down on speech that isn’t to your liking. You also cannot say we are the leader of the free world when the media has to treat the president with kid gloves — or he’ll sic his sycophants on them.
It is no secret that the president doesn’t like critical media of all kinds. That isn’t because the media is lying. Journalists aren’t operatives trying to undermine the United States for their own good — they are citizens reporting on what comes from the president and his administration. When Trump banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool when it declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America,” Americans barely batted an eye — because it was so expected. Trump constantly bashes journalists and their work, from calling them “fake news” to demanding their broadcasting licenses be taken away because he doesn’t like they report. He even sues them — an integral part of the Trump brand long before he rode down the Trump Tower escalator in 2015.
Americans like Hartzell Gray speak out
But Americans are not going down without a fight. Although things look bleak, we have seen strides. Among the public figures fighting back is Kansas City Democratic congressional candidate Hartzell Gray. He responded in social media to Kimmel’s suspension: “This is a fascist attack on free speech. The ongoing Disney boycott shows people will not stand for this and companies that sell out democracy will pay the price.”
Gray is 100% correct. Corporations are complicit. It appears that ABC was more willing to capitulate and play Trump’s game at first, instead of backing up their longtime host. When companies oblige and allow the government to censor free speech, the government controls the narrative. And we see what’s possible when they do the right thing: Kimmel is back on the air this week. ABC stood up for the American way, and Trump backed down.
The best way for news outlets to stand up to an oppressive regime is to fight it in the courts. It would be a slam dunk to defend their First Amendment rights. Legal action isn’t enough, though. We as Americans need to make a statement against this administration’s blatant disregard for the First Amendment. We’ve seen large No Kings and Labor Day protests in Kansas City, and they have been exactly what we need.
If this administration is willing to pressure ABC and other companies to cancel very powerful comedians, what’s stopping them from censoring more speech? If it’s eager to shut down The New York Times for covering Trump’s political opponent, what makes you think it will stop there?
Don’t ever give up your rights. You never know how much you’d miss them after they’re gone.
Madden Rausch is an aspiring writer from Kansas City, Kansas, a student at Bonner Springs High School and an avid supporter of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.