Tulane University professors are echoing an increasing national concern: Trump’s administration’s latest actions against the press and public expression represent a historic challenge to constitutional rights.
From restricting reporting access in the Pentagon building to pressuring the suspension of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show, experts say the implications of government censorship could be significant.
“This administration’s actions collectively amount to the most pernicious attack on free speech in my lifetime,” Bruce Hamilton, clinical professor of law with the Tulane First Amendment Clinic, said.
The Pentagon is requiring journalists to sign a pledge prohibiting them from reporting any information that has not been approved by an “appropriate authorizing official,” even if the information is marked as unclassified, as of Sept. 19.
The new policy suggests “the highest level of [government] censorship,” Nancy Maveety, professor of political science, said, likening the new policy to a form of prior restraint. “It dramatically reduces the flow of public information about the military … It’s essentially imposing a restriction on the press before it can report.”
The new Pentagon policy came two days after the controversial suspension of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show. This was a result of Kimmel’s remarks about the murder of Charlie Kirk and criticism of the Make America Great Again movement and President Donald Trump’s behavior after the murder.
“[The administration] is specifically infringing on people they don’t like,” Tulane political science professor Rachel Schoner said. “They’re using the freedom of speech, just not uniformly.”
Hamilton referenced Trump’s targeting of “individual media figures and news outlets for retribution,” including suing the New York Times for $15 billion, alleging defamation and his publicized “personal animosity for his perceived enemies in the media.”
“Punishing a news organization because of its expression is violative of the First Amendment,” Hamilton said.
Current trends in press freedom pose “a severe threat to not only fundamental human rights that are codified at an international level, but also [rights] that are in the U.S. Constitution,” Schoner said.
Trump signed an executive order on May 1 directing all executive departments and agencies to cease federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. This was on the basis of alleged “biased and partisan news coverage.”
“This pattern of targeting the president’s perceived opponents for retaliation has a horrendous effect of stigmatizing criticism, and it tends to normalize the sense that dissent is dangerous,” Hamilton said. “That’s bad for our American republic, because it stifles not just the spread of information, but the expression of speech and ideas.”