To the editor:<\/p>\n
The Trump administration assault on free speech is reaching a new level that should have us all very worried.\u00a0If the FCC is ready and willing to yank the broadcast licenses of media outlets that employ comedians and journalists the president does not like and run stories critical of the administration, our democracy is truly dead and buried.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hypocrisy, though, is stunning.\u00a0The president regularly insults entertainers and journalists who displease him by calling them \u201cno talent losers\u201d or \u201chorrible\u201d people, or \u201clow intelligence\u201d etc.\u00a0 He posted an image of the Obamas as apes.\u00a0No problems with any of this, but if Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert tells a joke Trump finds offensive, they should lose their jobs, and their employers should have their broadcast licenses revoked.<\/p>\n
James Comey is again under indictment, this time for posting an image of seashells he saw on the beach forming a design that read \u201c86 47.\u201d\u00a0 Trump and the MAGA faithful interpret this as a threat to assassinate the president.\u00a0 First, 86 means \u201cget rid of\u201d which could as easily mean \u201cvote against\u201d as anything resembling a call to violence.\u00a0 Who knows what was in the mind of the person who created the design?\u00a0How can you know for certain what was in Comey\u2019s mind?\u00a0 Do we need Orwell\u2019s Thought Police to take charge?<\/p>\n
CBS is under Trump\u2019s thumb and he\u2019s going after ABC.\u00a0He\u2019s talked frequently about locking up journalists.\u00a0He wants to create a climate of fear where his critics are driven underground.\u00a0 But he\u2019s failing.\u00a0In Hungary and across Europe, authoritarianism is in retreat.<\/p>\n
Our midterm elections will be our first step towards getting rid of the Trump agenda of chaos and brutality. Bullies love to hurl insults at their perceived enemies, but they can\u2019t stand it when their targets return the favor.\u00a0 The DOJ and the FCC work for the American people; those agencies are not supposed to be weaponized against critics of the president.<\/p>\n
Ray Clasen<\/p>\n
North Fort Myers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: The Trump administration assault on free speech is reaching a new level that should have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-253308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}