I never thought I would be writing a column about whether there is censorship in the USA, however, when the Inter -American Press Society (SIP) – which has historically denounced attacks against the press in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela – gives the alarm voice about what is happening in this country, you have to pay attention. What is happening is serious.
The SIP recently issued three statements expressing its concern for the attacks of President Donald Trump to the media. The last one, on September 19, cited Trump statements and its director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, that they could revoke the ABC television network license.
The reason? Critical comments from the political comedian Jimmy Kimmel. Trump said on September 18 that some chains “only give me bad advertising or press,” and added that “they are getting a license. I think they would have to withdraw the license.”
Kimmel was suspended from ABC hours after Carr warned that the FCC could take measures against the chain for comedian’s comments on the reaction of Trump’s followers before the murder of right -wing activist Charlie Kirk.
After an avalanche of criticism for the suspension of the comedian, including a letter signed by Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston and about 400 more artists, Kimmel was reinstated a few days later.
However, the incident aroused a political storm, because it was not an isolated event. A few weeks before, the CBS chain had announced that it would remove its political comedian Stephen Colbert from the air next year.
There is a general suspicion that both ABC and CBS acted under political pressure, because their respective matric companies are processing mergers that require the approval of the Trump government.
The president of the SIP, José Roberto Dutriz, said in a statement that the president’s mere suggestion that a chain could lose his license “constitutes an unacceptable form of censorship.”
Just a week earlier, the SIP and many other organizations had condemned Trump’s trial against the newspaper “The New York Times” for US $ 15,000 million, and a similar demand for US $ 10,000 million from the president against “The Wall Street Journal.”
The Trump government also announced plans to prohibit access to pentagon to journalists who publish information that are not approved by the Government.
Martha Ramos, president of the SIP Press and Information Commission, told me that this kind of “were very unusual” things in the US and is a dangerous trend for everyone, he added. To be clear, neither the SIP nor other organizations are comparing the US with Cuba or Venezuela. I can still write these lines, and thousands of other American journalists can still criticize the president without fear of being arrested.
But a growing number of legal experts are using the word ‘censorship’ to describe what is happening here. Kimmel’s contract expires in May, many are already concerned that, like Colbert, he can be removed from the air very soon under the pretext of a “audience fall.”
Indeed, regulatory pressures, together with media acquisitions by multimillionaires friends of Trump and their judgments against independent media, could leave the country with a docile press, as in many authoritarian countries.
We have not yet reached that point, but one thing is clear: Trump has eroded the US moral authority to criticize other countries that gag the press. That, in itself, is a tragedy.
–Glossado and edited–
© The new Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC “
