The Chilling Effect

Free speech appears first in the Bill of Rights for an extremely good reason. Without a free press keeping the people informed with accurate information, any kind of representative democracy cannot stand. Obviously, if citizens are expected to support and vote for candidates, they have to know what these candidates do once they get into office.

Because of the extreme difficulty in actually getting around the First Amendment to the nation's Constitution, lawmakers and government officials who want to prevent the press or whistle-blowers from telling everyone all the evil shit they're doing have to suppress free speech in other ways. It's the "chilling effect" - you don't actually imprison or attack those simply voicing their opinions, you try to force people to think twice before they have a chance to say anything at all.

It first became clear that the White House intended to use paranoia and fear to control the media and keep the public ignorant in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. This was, of course, when then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer cautioned Americans to "watch what they say," when networks started firing comedians for failing to demonstrate properly enthusiastic patriotism.

This is only natural, this desire to keep the public misinformed and ignorant. If an administration is going to insist on activities that range from the sleazy to the fundamentally wrong-headed to the downright anti-American, they then have to make sure no one finds out about it.

So, yeah, that's been going on. It's not a surprise. But this new bill, introduced by Ohio Senator Mike DeWine, is a new low in threatening anyone who dares speak out against the President or his cronies. My thanks to Glenn Greenwald for pointing out this rotten legislation:

Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration's eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in U.S. law.

...

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified."

The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate.

That really goes beyond a mere "chilling effect" and into a direct threat. If you tell people about the illegal stuff Bush is doing, we will put your ass in jail.

Now, it's really really unlikely that anyone would actually do jail time under this law. It probably won't even pass (although with this knuckleheads making the decisions, who knows...) The point isn't to actually jail journalists and whistle-blowers. The legislation simply intends to threaten, to make people think twice before speaking out about something. Disgusting.