Editor's Note
Editor’s note: Government censorship may become a concern for New York’s ‘fearless’ reporters
Members of the press now have to worry about their First Amendment rights with politicians acting out against negative coverage.
Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from his late-night talk show raised new concerns about intrusions on the First Amendment. Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Author Alan Moore in “V for Vendetta” made a chilling prediction about government censorship that came to mind after ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and with the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. “And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission,” the main character V says in the 1982 graphic novel.
After Kimmel’s suspension, President Donald Trump said TV networks that covered him negatively could be punished. “The example of a president who is actively trying to wage a crack down on any dissenting voices, and that includes people who ask challenging questions, means we all should be concerned and wary, more than how we would have been in the past,” Jere Hester, director of editorial partnerships and local accountability reporting at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, told City & State. First Amendment restrictions already have filtered down to the local level. Mayor Eric Adams, who last week complained of negative coverage of his long-shot reelection and a press “agenda” to undermine his campaign, earlier this year stopped taking questions from Daily News reporter Chris Sommerfeldt and barred him from attending press conferences for about a week. Such threats might spook lesser reporters from asking tough questions. Hester, however, noted that New York City reporters are “fearless.” This is true, and we won’t be silenced.