This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A reporter for a legacy publication in Washington, D.C., is wondering what the White House can do to censor the social media statements of President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president this election.
A report by Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, cited the comment by Washington Post writer Cleve Wootson Jr. at a White House press conference.
He said, "I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue … it's an American issue."
Then he lobbed a "softball" at Biden press secretary Karine Jean Pierre, with, "What role does the White House or the president have in sort of stopping that or stopping the spread of that or sort of intervening in that? Some of that was about campaign misinformation, but, you know, it's a wider thing, right?"
The advocacy for censorship came on the heels on President Trump's two-hour long conversation with X chief Elon Musk on social media, which has attracted the attention of billions who have watch at least part of that. This is at a time when Democrat hopeful Kamala Harris is avoiding the press, declining to make her policy positions known, similar to Joe Biden's hide-in-the-basement scheme during the 2020 election.
Turley, who has written widely on free speech and recently released a book on the topic, said, "In my new book on free speech, I discuss at length how the mainstream media has joined an alliance with the government and corporations in favor of censorship and blacklisting. The Washington Post, however, appears to be taking its anti-free speech campaign to a new level with open calls for a crackdown. The newspaper offered no objection or even qualification after its reporter, Cleve Wootson Jr., appeared to call upon the White House to censor the interview of Elon Musk with former President Donald Trump. Under the guise of a question, Wootson told White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that censoring its leading political opponent is 'an America issue.'"
Turley explained how Wootson's question "was really a political statement. Wootson begins by stating as a fact that Musk and X are engaging in disinformation and it is a threat to the country."
He continued, "Let's recap. The Washington Post used a White House presser to call for censorship of one of the leading candidates for the White House and then demanded to know what the White House would do about it."
And he pointed out how the publication itself, which has become "one of the most hostile newspapers to free speech values," was silent. "No correction. No qualification."
And he noted how the Post previously as "stood by" other false reports, the "Lafayette Park protests, Hunter Biden laptop and other stories."
In fact, there now exists "a danger of a de facto state media in the United States," he warned, not by government coercion but "by consent" of the media.
