Mario Savio Free Speech Movement – Bettman via Getty Images
Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 9/22/25
Headline: “Freedom And/or Speech”
Subhead: “The boundaries of free speech have always been contested. That’s not what’s going on this time.”
“. . .Trump’s recent rhetoric about ‘illegal’ coverage and all the rest is, on one level, very scary. But for those interested in protecting their First Amendment rights—including, hopefully, the entirety of the press—it might also be preferable to the alternative: namely, the arbitrary and opaque cranking of oppressive bureaucratic machinery. Trump’s threats are so explicit that news organizations have no excuse but to identify them for what they are. . .”
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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 9/22/25
Headline: “Opinion | Trump’s escalating war on speech raises a chilling question: Where does it end?”‘
“. . . CNN’s Brian Stelter summed it up really well in his ‘Reliable Sources’ newsletter by writing, “Imagine we’re all stuck in an elevator together. The elevator is only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we’re at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom.’
“I’ll add this: No one knows where the very bottom is. . .”
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