The New York Times can’t seem to make up its mind on the First Amendment.
Here is the Times promoting censorious Andrew Marantz on the subject of free speech in 2019:
Free Speech Is Killing Us
Noxious language online is causing real-world violence. What can we do about it?
Got it? Free speech was a problem for the Times in 2019.
But now? Here’s this Times headline from just this month of March, 2025:
‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves
People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families.
This Times story proclaims:
More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.
Got that? In 2019 The Times was alarmed, spreading the notion that “Free Speech Is Killing Us.” Now there was a reason to elect Joe Biden and get that threatening Trump guy dictator out of the White House and silence his minions.
Now, a mere six years later in 2025, The Times frets that “People Are Going Silent” because - wouldn’t you know - that nasty Trump guy is back in the White House and his minions are intimidating Americans into silence.
What a difference six years makes!
The real problem here is that the American Left hates dissent from whatever is the hot topic on the left wing agenda of the moment.
As if to underline the point, one story after another has leaked recently on the ongoing turmoil at The Washington Post because - OMG! - owner Jeff Bezos wants more conservatives on the Op-Ed pages.
This daring, ohhhhh so terrible idea has resulted in headline after headline, beginning with the news in 2024 that Bezos would not have the Post endorse Kamala Harris for president, choosing silence on the issue with no endorsement of either Harris or candidate Trump.
This resulted in headlines like this one from CNN:
The Washington Post is in deep turmoil as Bezos remains silent on non-endorsement
Once 2024 was in the history books and 2025 had dawned, the “turmoil” stories out of the Post kept coming.
Why? Because publisher Bezos had the horrific idea to publish some conservative opinion on the Post Op-Ed pages. Leading to headlines like this one from the Times:
Bezos Orders Washington Post Opinion Section to Embrace ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets’
David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, is resigning after trying to persuade Jeff Bezos to reconsider the new direction.
One could go on and on with similar headlines. The central point is clear: The American Left despises free speech and wants to silence it, whether in the Washington Post or anywhere else where disagreement over an issue that is a favorite of the Left surfaces.
We'll have to see if the Bezos order is actually followed. Last year, the Post didn't formally endorse Kamala, but the editorial board kept slamming Trump as the worst possible choice, so there was no doubt where they stood.
Move away from journalism in Washington and head north to New York City. There, on the leftist-filled campuses of Columbia and Barnard universities, one headline after another tells the tale of leftist pro-Palestinian students trying to shut down the free speech of pro-Israel students. Examples:
From the Times of Israel:
Barnard College expels 2 students who disrupted Israel history class last month
Anti-Israel student coalition at US institution shares footage of activists interrupting class, saying course ‘legitimizes the Zionist entity’; Hillel president praises expulsion
TIME magazine:
Investigations at Columbia University Clash with Concerns about Free Speech on Campus
The list of these stories are endless, filling the Internet. But the theme is always - always, always, always - the same: The Left will passionately defend the free speech of "pro-Palestinian" actors even as they suppress the free speech of their opponents.
It could be leftists inside The Washington Post. It could be leftists at prestigious American universities. Heaven knows the arena where this obsession with suppressing a dissenting (conservative?) point of view will surface.
But at this point, make no mistake. Surface it will. And the answer to this anti-free speech mania from the Left, whether inside a major American newspaper, an Ivy League university or anywhere else, is for believers in free speech to stand up and speak out.
Being quiet is not an option.
