Trump explains why the First Amendment has ‘too much protection’ for free speech “Our press is allowed to say whatever they want.”

1. Trump explains why the First
Amendment has ‘too much protection’
for free speech
“Our press is allowed to say whatever they want.”
If Donald Trump is president, he’d like to make some changes to the First Amendment.
In an interview with WFOR, CBS’ Miami affiliate, Trump was asked if he believes the
First Amendment provides “too much protection.”
Trump answered in the affirmative, saying he’d like to change the laws to make it
easier to sue media companies. Trump lamented that, under current law, “our press is
allowed to say whatever they want.”

2. He recommended moving to a system like in England where someone who sues a
media company has “a good chance of winning.”
Trump has recently threatened to sue the New York Times and the numerous women
who say he has sexually assaulted them.
Trump is right that he would have a better chance of prevailing under English law
where an allegedly defamatory statement is presumed to be false. There, it is up to the
defendant in a libel suit to prove that their statements are true.
But even if U.S. law were more like England’s, Trump might still have difficulty in
prevailing against his accusers or the New York Times.
Many of Trump’s accusers have witnesses who can corroborate their stories. The
reporter for People Magazine who says she was assaulted by Trump, for example, has
six different people supporting her version of events.
English defamation law was also amended in 2013 to add a “public interest”
exemption. This change would potentially allow the New York Times to escape
liability in England even if they were unable to definitely prove the truth of their
reporting.
Despite his advocacy for restricting freedom of speech in the United States, Trump
said his is a “tremendous believer of the freedom of the press.”
“Nobody believes it strong than me,” Trump added.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-first-amendment-too-much-protection-
37e72ee16ea2#.ltipjq1ae
It was an interesting weekend for free speech.
VP-elect and occasional theater-goer Mike Pence got a mixed review on Friday after
he was booed by some audience members who spotted him slipping into his seat at
Hamilton. After the performance, Brandon Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, thanked
Pence for attending and read a statement from the cast. It was a theatrical reflection of
what many people are feeling:
"We, sir -- we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new
administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us
and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to
uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us."
The President-elect, upon hearing of the affront, took to Twitter several times to
demand an apology.

3. “The theater must always be a safe and special place,” he said in one tweet. “The cast
and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately
apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior,” he said in another.
On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter again, this time to complain about SNL’s “biased”
show. That prompted his impersonator, Alec Baldwin, to fire back with a suggestion to
retrain Americans to create jobs. It was downhill from there.
To his credit, Pence said he wasn’t offended by the Hamilton reception. “When we
arrived we heard a few boos, and we heard some cheers," he told Fox News Sunday. "I
nudged my kids and reminded them that is what freedom sounds like."
Pence has heard the sound of freedom before. Like last April, for example, when he
was heckled while throwing out the first pitch at the Indianapolis Indians’ home
opener. "A lot of people were booing him," Lindsay Watson helpfully told the Indiana
Star, sounding one part reporter, one part Midwestern nice. "There were a few people
cheering but not many. More boos than cheers."
More boos than cheers is how democracy often goes; at best, it’s a messy and
imperfect way to do business. But the freedoms of assembly and speech, among
others, are pretty central to its success. Anything that dampens those fundamental
rights – to help the public parse the extraordinary conflicts of interest facing the
Trump administration, for example - should be deeply alarming.
Hamilton, Broadway’s breakout hit and tribute to diversity, grosses about $2 million a
week in ticket sales. Chances are the #BoycottHamilton “movement” which erupted
after the booing died down will have little to no impact on their momentum. Donald
Trump's demand for "equal time" on SNL probably won't hurt the franchise or Alec
Baldwin much either. But, free speech is always a risk, particularly for anyone in the
for-profit sector. Speaking truth to power means speaking directly to yourselves, and
your own bottom line. Always a messy bit of business, but these days, an increasingly
necessary one. The trick is not to throw away your shot.
With more business leaders taking the unusual step of addressing the subject of race
and inclusion in both public and private ways, I'm hoping for more cheers than boos in
2017.
http://fortune.com/2016/11/21/free-speech-in-the-trump-era/

4. The president-elect needs to brush up on his First Amendment
(Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
It’s only been a short time since we watched Donald Trump take the keys to the
White House.
And it hasn’t taken him long to criticise freedom of speech in his latest tweet,
something that is ingrained in the American Constitution – is this a sign of things to
come?
In a post, sent late yesterday, he wrote: ‘Just had a very open and successful
presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are
protesting. Very unfair!’

5. Trump accused the media of ‘inciting’ protests against his election win – even though
it is within people’s democratic right to voice their opinion, thanks to the American
Constitution. And the press have the freedom to report on these events.
Those on social media were quick to pick up on the president-elect’s use of the word
‘unfair’ – and his lack of knowledge when it comes to the First Amendment.
Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters,
incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2016
One tweeter wrote: ‘We are American’s we’re allowed to protest. It’s not ‘unfair’, it’s in
the constitution.’
Another added: ‘Protesting is a constitutional right. Also, now that you are president-
elect, your lies are government propaganda.’
Earlier this year Trump vowed he would call for an ‘opening up’ of libel laws, which
would make it easier to sue reporters who write unflattering things.
He also said there should be blacklists of media outlets he didn’t want covering him.
.@realDonaldTrump We are Americans. We are allowed to protest. It's not "unfair",
it's in the Constitution.
—
billy eichner (@billyeichner) November 11, 2016
First tweet after the election is that protests are unfair!? Perhaps you meant "I respect
them for exercising their first amendment rights?" https://t.co/JXoscHfIlU
— Misha Collins (@mishacollins) November 11, 2016
.@realDonaldTrump Protesting is a constitutional right. Also, now that you are
President-elect, your lies are government propaganda.
—
Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) November 11, 2016
@laurenduca He got exactly what he wanted & still he's pitying himself — not to
mention responding to protest like a dictator. Lord love us.
—
Rachel Vorona Cote (@RVoronaCote) November 11, 2016

6. @realDonaldTrump Duh because no one likes you... 46 percent of the country did not
vote .. You didn't win America sorry
—
LADY THRILLER (@LadyThriller69) November 11, 2016
. @realDonaldTrump Do you need to borrow my 8th grade history book? Have you
even read the Constitution?!
—
alison becker (@thealisonbecker) November 11, 2016
Ironically, Trump previously called on people to ‘march on Washington’ over Obama’s
victory four years ago – urging a revolution against the electoral system.
We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our
nation is totally divided!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
What does it actually say in the constitution
It states: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.’
http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/11/trump-attacks-freedom-of-speech-just-a-day-after-winning-
the-election-6250358/
No one can know for sure what the incoming Trump administration will do, but
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized and threatened the media in
the United States. In lieu of attempting the impossible and predicting the future, we’ve
gathered all of Trump’s stated positions on free speech and freedom of the press. If
you are aware of any additional statements that we have not included, please email
kate@eff.org with a link to your source material, and we will consider it for inclusion.
While running for president, Trump made his general feelings about the press very
clear. He has called the media “dishonest” and described reporters as “scum,” “sleaze,”
and “horrible people.” At a rally last February, he famously said, "I'm going to open up
our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles,
we can sue them and win lots of money."
In the past, Trump has filed frivolous lawsuits against media defendants that threaten
to silence critics and draw scarce resources away from important reporting work. For
example, in 1984, Trump sued the Chicago Tribune and its Pulitzer Prize-winning
architecture critic, Paul Gapp for an article that made fun of Trump's proposal to build

7. a 150-story skyscraper on landfill in New York. In 2006, Trump sued Time Warner
Books and an author for publishing a book that reported Trump was worth
substantially less than he claimed. He sued for $5 billion in damages. And during the
election, Trump sued Univision and its head of programming for dropping coverage of
the Miss Universe pageant (in response to Trump’s comments that Mexicans are
rapists), and for posting a picture of Trump next to a picture of convicted murderer
Dylan Roof on Instagram with the comment “Sin commentaries.” Although none of
these statements met the libel standard and Trump failed to win any case, in each the
media defendants had to hire—and pay—lawyers to defend themselves—all the way
to the appellate court in at least one case. Trump said, about one case he lost, “I liked it
because I cost him a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of money.”
Trump has repeatedly denied the media access. During his campaign, he pulled out of
two debates because he reportedly didn’t like the way he was treated by Fox News
and its reporter, Megyn Kelly.
He also pulled the credentials of several national media outlets, including the
Washington Post, for ideological disagreements, and, in the Post’s case, for an arguably
inaccurate headline. The Post’s Executive Editor Marty Baron called the move,
“nothing less than a repudiation of a free and independent press.” Trump’s campaign
also blacklisted reporters from Gawker, BuzzFeed, Foreign Policy, Politico, Fusion,
Univision, Mother Jones, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Des Moines Register, the
Daily Beast and Huffington Post. That left reporters having “to try to walk into public
events with the general crowd rather than being escorted into the press section.”
However, when one Politico reporter tried to report from the general audience section
at a Trump rally instead of the press pen, Trump’s staff kicked him out and then
denied him credentials to a later campaign event.
Since winning the election, the incoming administration has broken from the practices
of past incoming presidents in ways that could impact how the press reports on and
the public learns about its activities. For example, Trump broke from “decades of
tradition” by not traveling with a press pool during his campaign and continued to do
so even after the election. This meant that the public often learned about Trump’s
conversations with leaders of foreign countries from the countries themselves, rather
than the press. And Trump’s incoming Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, implied in an
interview last week that the new administration may do away with daily press
briefings in the White House.
This blog post is part of a campaign asking the tech community to defend users and
digital rights. Have we missed something? Send us any additional statements from
Trump and his advisors about free speech by emailing kate@eff.org.
https://www.eff.org/es/deeplinks/2016/12/trump-free-speech-and-freedom-press