E-Pluribus+: Reactions to the NYT Editorial on Free Speech
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E-Pluribus+: Reactions to the NYT Editorial on Free Speech
A collection of some fair and . . . out there takes on today's New York Times editorial on free speech.
First, some fair criticisms of the NYT’s argument:
Click through to this thread from Ken White (Popehat):
Dear @nytimes editorial board: regarding your op-ed today, what is the source of this right? Is it God-given? If so what’s the scriptural source? Constitutional? Under what clause and recognized in what cases?
/1
Greg Lukianoff, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Some basics.
1) Of course you do not have *a right* not be criticized
2) #FreeSpeech is of exponentially greater use to society if you hear each other out
3) Shouting people down at a talk is old-fashioned mob censorship as it decides for others who they may listen to
David French, The Dispatch
The good news: The NYT is recognizing and responding to the attacks on the law and culture of free speech in the United States.
The bad news: The editorial misstates the law in the first paragraph. There is no such right.
(In fact, there's a right to shame and shun.) /1
Now for the “enlightened” takes from journalists and blue checks:
Keith Olbermann with the completely wrong “yelling fire in a crowded theater” take:
You're goddamned right "America has a free speech problem" - the @nytimes editorial board has lost the plot.
There's freedom to have ANY opinion. There is NOT freedom to have ANY opinion without consequences.
THAT is 'yelling fire in a crowded theater.' nytimes.com/2022/03/18/opi…
Adam Davidson, The New Yorker
Jeff Jarvis, Professor, CUNY Newmark Journalism School
This is appalling. The both-sidesism of The New York Times comes out in full force from its editorial board as it equates the left criticizing hate and the right burning books. Pure moral panic. A 🧵. 1/ nytimes.com/2022/03/18/opi…
The editorial's lede is the worst of it. No, we have not lost our right to speak. We are exercising our right to speak around the gatekeepers that included old, white, male, privileged, powerful, closed newspapers and editorial boards and they resent it. 2/
Chip Goins, GBH News Contributor
The @nytopinion ed board: "Why can't I call black people the n-word in public without losing all of my front teeth? Whatever happened to FrEe SpEeCh?"
Sam Hoadley-Brill 🙏 RIP CHARLES MILLS 🐐 @deonteleologist
"ReSpEcT mY TrAsH OpInIonS!!!11" is a helluva lewk, @nytopinion. Once again, Freedom of Speech does NOT mean Freedom from Consequences. If you're a masked white supremacist coward hanging racist banners on highway overpasses, don't be surprised when folks make you famous.
@nytopinion In any case, I see that the NYT editorial board is still salty that they couldn't get away with hiring a white supremacist 4 years ago
Atima Omara, Democratic Political Strategist
Oh I now see why people are extra annoyed about the NY Times Op-ed on free speech it actually came from the Editorial Board..
This piece definitely reads as: if Trump's "both sides" 2017 speech was an op-ed....
Jacob Brogan, Washington Post Outlook Editor
If I refrain from criticizing an editorial about cancel culture in the New York Times because I worry that might limit my ability to be hired by that same paper in the future, is that cancel culture? This New York Times editorial suggests that it might be.
Dan Froomkin, PressWatchers
Noah Schactman, Editor in Chief, Rolling Stone
honestly, i've never seen an intellectual inception this successful. and while robby's initial concerns were about relatively-powerless college kids, this 'cancel culture' panic has now been weaponized by people with and influence to gain even more of it. a jaw-dropping move.
Noah Shachtman @NoahShachtman
Ishmael Daro, Digital Editor, Democracy Now
"Many on the left feel the 'cancel culture' panic is about excusing bigotry and occasionally send some rude tweets to columnists. Many on the right are literally banning books about black and LGBTQ people. Truly, both sides are to blame." —NYT logic nyti.ms/36q1W0D
Tami Sawyer, Shelby County Commissioner (TN)
Big “why can’t I say the N word” energy here @nytimes.
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Scott Nover, Quartz
Me saying that this is a dumbass editorial doesn’t infringe on the free speech rights of its dumbass writers.
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Abdallah Fayyad, Boston Globe
No one has a right to be free of the fear of being shamed if they plan on saying something reprehensible. That’s just not a right that exists, nor should it.
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Ernest Owens, Philadelphia Magazine Editor-at-Large
This is why I can't wait for my upcoming book "The Case for Cancel Culture" to drop.
Even the New York Times still don't understand how any of this works.
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Center for American Progress
The NYT Editorial Board’s take on the GOP’s racist and anti-LGBTQ legislation spreading like wildfire across statehouses is to *checks notes* equate that horrifying trend with people not liking get ratioed on Twitter?
Brandon Farmahini, Podcast Host
This NY times piece has a really distortedly privileged view of the history of free speech in the USA. Cancel culture has existed for black Americans for their entire time on this continent in the form of whippings, lynchings, beatings, fire hosing etc
Jeremy Yoder, Biologist
Finally, some point out the NYT’s hypocrisy:
Glenn Greenwald
There are some valid and even important points in this Editorial -- especially on how free speech principles came from the liberal-left, which now mostly rejects them -- but it's an odd lecture from a paper that fired two editors for publishing an op-ed by a sitting Senator:
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Noam Bloom, Tablet Magazine
Oh gee I wonder what side they'll choose to focus on... But go ahead, NYT - surprise me.
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Thomas Chatterton Williams
Interesting, I feel like there was a letter making this exact same point two years ago. Wasn’t it published in @Harpers or something?
Sonny Bunch, The Bulwark
I’m excited to watch the documentary released 18 months from today about what the NYT’s Slack looks like at this exact moment.
Pradheep Shanker
Will the @NYTimesOpEd board identify the NEW YORK TIMES as a threat to freedom of speech?
Because it clearly has been over the past few years.
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Michelangelo Signorile, Host, Signorile Show
So does NYT believe they engaged in "cancel culture" when they fired op-ed editor over Tom Cotton piece calling for violence vs. protestors?
Or do they believe they fired an editor who didn't meet standards?
America Has a Free Speech Problem
Paul Thacker, X Games Medalist
Holy “pot this is this is the kettle” moment and yet they are completely oblivious…
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion
Buck Sexton, Radio Show Host
The NY Times editorial board writing about intolerance of dissenting views and the overall threat to free speech in America today is like a maniacal arsonist offering fire safety lessons
New York Times Opinion @nytopinion