When 400 or so news outlets ran editorials chastising Donald Trump for his anti-press demagoguery last week, they made an important point about freedom of speech in America: Journalists may be mad at the president, but they are not afraid him, which is no small accomplishment in a world where reporters who offend powerful people can end up behind bars or below ground.
Americans owe their freedom of expression to the quasi-magical powers of words written more than two centuries ago. Combined with an independent judiciary, those words continue to provide robust protection for people who annoy the government.
Reporters Without Borders moved the United States down four notches in its World Press Freedom Index between 2016 and 2018, mainly because of Trump’s open hostility toward the people who cover him. But far from undermining freedom of the press, Jacob Sullum says, the president’s fulminations have proven its durability.
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