Trump, Facebook, and the weaponization of free speech

Yesterday—as protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, continued across the US—things that President Trump said caused trouble again, and drove the news again. First, Trump laid into governors on a conference call that quickly leaked to the press; he called most of them “weak,” and advised that if they didn’t “dominate” demonstrators in their states, the governors would “look like a bunch of jerks.” Later, Trump addressed the nation from the White House Rose Garden, and threatened to deploy the military to the states should unrest persist. While he was speaking, police used tear gas and flashbangs to violently clear a peaceful gathering outside the White House; one officer was caught on camera bashing a news camera with his shield. The police, it turned out, were clearing a path so that Trump could walk to a vandalized church for a photo op that was, itself, excruciating. (“That wasn’t even good reality television,” CNN’s Jim Acosta said.) Trump stood outside the church, awkwardly holding a Bible aloft in his right hand. When a reporter asked Trump if the Bible was his, he replied, “It’s a Bible.” Asked what he was thinking, Trump said, “Don’t ask.” For now, we’ll have to wait and see whether Trump’s words about deploying the military to the states come to anything. (Last night, reporters and pundits were parsing the Insurrection Act of 1807 and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It felt like a post-apocalyptic spinoff of The West Wing.)... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-06-02 12:08:10 UTC ]

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