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Last active March 8, 2023 02:32
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"Government Censorship" and Faux News

In response to this tweet, concerning this article.

A veterans group has called on the Pentagon to ban some Fox News personalities from being broadcast in U.S. military facilities.

Quoth Matthew van Eerde:

Blocking a news channel (or "news" channel, if you prefer) on military bases, because of anti-government content (even if false,) would absolutely be government censorship

Let's break this down a bit.

  1. Government censorship of the Press is explicitly forbidden by the First Amendment and therefore, no matter what this veterans group asks for, any censorship of the Press would be unconstitutional. Your general sentiment and vaguer concerns stop here, because that's how constitutional law works.
  2. FOX news isn't news. They've argued as such in court!
  3. Governments deciding to not include "FOX News" in its curated list of approved news outlets for airing on the TVs in military bases and/or VA hospitals wouldn't qualify as government censorship of the press, because they aren't the press, per point 2.
  4. The right to free speech does not include the right to an audience. You aren't entitled to viewers or their attention.
  5. Because of point 4, and ignoring point 2 for the sake of the principle of charity, even the government did forbid FOX news in a military base, as long as individuals could still access it on their personal devices it wouldn't qualify for censorship.

There is no logical framework in which this "government censorship" objection makes any logical sense, unless you totally ignore the facts and how law works.

Hope this helps!

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