No free speech at the White House

President #47 continued his attacks on basic bourgeois democracy this week by banning journalists with CNN, MS NOW and Politico. Guards confiscated their badges Sept. 19 when they attempted to enter the White House.

This is not the first time Trump has curtailed freedom of the press. As the New York Times reported: “The Justice Department has sent FBI agents to reporters’ homes to serve subpoenas and, in at least one case, flashed a warrant to seize devices. The Pentagon has fired the editor and publisher of its traditionally independent newspaper, Stars And Stripes. … Angry over stories he does not like, President Trump has sued major news organizations, and the White House has taken control of the previously independent press pool that tracks the president, deciding which outlets can participate.” (Sept. 12)

This latest move by #47 provoked howls of indignation from bourgeois politicians and media, calling the president’s new restrictions illegal and unconstitutional. “No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for The Associated Press, complained. The Times and the Washington Post blasted the attack on freedom of speech and of the press.

Politicians joining in on the condemnation of Trump included Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer. House Rep. Jamie Raskin called on the media to boycott the White House if the president does not reverse his ban.

Even Fox News contributors criticized #47; one, Jonathan Turley, said, “Barring disfavored media from the White House is a terrible precedent and practice.” (New York Times, Sept. 19)

Fox later backtracked, with opinion show host Joey Jones saying, in reference to the ban, he wouldn’t “shed a tear over it.” (mediate.com, Sept. 20)

Free speech for some, not others

These same politicians and media sources have been silent over the McCarthy-like attacks on genuinely progressive organizations by the Justice Dept., which attempt to criminalize opposition to the U.S. blockade of Cuba and to the war against Iran. They remain silent on the horrific massacres, starvation and other forms of inhumane treatment in Gaza, refusing to call it a genocide.

All this is taking place at the same time that Paramount is trying to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, which would place CNN under the same umbrella as CBS, which is controlled by Trump allies Larry Ellison and his son David Ellison.

What concerns them now in the cases of CNN, MS NOW and Politico? Maybe the Times, the Post, AP and Democratic politicians are worried that #47 is going too far. Maybe they even fear being the next target of his fascist, anti-democratic politics.

Trump, a billionaire himself and a pal of some of the world’s richest men, such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, is the face of end-stage capitalism. His fascist leanings reflect the fact that the system is in distress — and it is the capitalist class, not just Trump, that react to their declining fortunes like wild, rabid beasts.

What these phony civil liberties advocates really want, whether or not they realize it, is a return to an earlier stage of capitalism. They favor a scenario where imperialist expansion gave the ruling class the security to grant a larger measure of democratic freedom and debate between its different wings.

Workers World condemns these latest right-wing attacks on free speech. But this paper doesn’t want to go back to “the good old days” of Constitutional freedoms for liberals and moderates — as well as conservatives and even fascists, which bourgeois liberals consistently defend.

The only guarantee against a fascist future is to get rid of capitalism and build a socialist economy.