The Left’s Hypocrisy On Free Speech

This past November, America went through another demonstration of how the Left views its right to free speech as unassailable, irrevocable, and absolute when CNN’s Jim Acosta’s White House press pass was revoked by the Trump administration. Rather than accept the suspension, CNN took the case to court and got a federal judge to side with them and order the White House to temporarily restore Acosta’s press credentials.

It is not as if Acosta’s suspension was unwarranted. The White House argued that Acosta did not follow basic standards at a news conference when he squabbled with President Donald Trump. Anyone who is a non-biased critical thinking person could see that Acosta was way out of line and deserved to have his White House press credentials revoked, for life.

A White House press conference is a question and answer session between the President of the United States and reporters, who are privileged with the right to ask a question at the president’s pleasure when he calls on them. Reporters in presidential press conferences do not have the guaranteed right to either be called upon to ask a question, nor do they have the right to yell out their questions and expect such behavior to be rewarded with a response from the president. In other words, reporters have a privilege, not a right, to have access to the president to ask the president questions.

It is not the Jim Acosta show and press conference. It is the president’s White House press conference. CNN, the network dedicated 24/7 to bringing down the Trump administration, has willfully inserted their pit bull Acosta into this arena with the expressed purpose of being disruptive and discourteous to Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States.

The president’s press conferences are not a debate platform for CNN backed Jim Acosta to lecture President Trump on issues ranging from the ongoing conjured up Russia investigation to the Honduras migrant invasion. Trump did not need to answer one question from Jim Acosta, much less multiple questions from him, and be lectured that the approaching Honduras migrants heading to the U.S. border was not an “invasion,” as Trump deemed it, but actually refugees seeking asylum. If Acosta and CNN actually believe that, they have their network to air their view on this matter, a view that President Trump and a majority of Americans disagree with.

The Acosta so-called free speech issue, in a broader sense, reflects the Left’s absolute, arrogant, elitist, obnoxious, pious, privileged, and unassailable views on free speech for themselves, while simultaneously being the arbiters of free speech for everyone else, especially conservatives.

The Left ideologically differs with conservatives on a broad range of issues, including abortion, feminism, gay marriage (including anything affiliated with the LGBT community such as drag queen story hour teachings to children, etc.), gun ownership rights, and God. It has gotten to the point in America where legislators in California want to ban speech and books that are critical of the LGBT lifestyle, which would include the Holy Bible and quoting from it in the pulpit or elsewhere.

The Left employs branding as one of its main tactics in the culture war, which they have been accustomed to winning. They brand anyone against abortion as being against a woman’s “healthcare and reproductive rights.” Men who speak up against the radical feminist agenda are labeled as misogynists. People who morally object to the homosexual lifestyle and all the bad fruit that derives from it are branded “bigots and homophobes.” NRA members who defend the 2nd Amendment right of gun ownership and are against severe gun restrictions and gun control laws are accused of “supporting school shootings and gun violence against children.” People of faith are often accused of trying to impose their religion on the culture in violation of a non-existent separation of church and state Constitutional clause.

If one holds conservative views and attempts to share them on “open” social media platforms, they could find themselves suspended for a term, or for life, as was the case with Alex Jones. Hold conservative opinions and say something deemed inappropriate by the Left, if you are in an industry that they control, you could lose your employment, as was the case with Roseann Barr. If you are in professional sports, and utter any kind of gay slur, mandated counseling is ordered for that type of hate speech. Yet, the NFL accommodates players free speech rights in tacking a knee for the national anthem, in violation of its own rules against doing so.

The Jim Acosta saga once again demonstrates, as far as the Left is concerned, political correctness, hate speech, proper etiquette, and protocol is something that conservatives must abide by, but not the Left. President Donald J. Trump doesn’t play by the Left’s politically correct speech codes, which is why they hate him as much as they do. It is perfectly fine for name calling and hostility to be directed at any and all things conservative, but say the slightest improperly spoken word against a leftist enshrined philosophy, and the mainstream leftist media will harp on the conservative messenger for as much mileage as they can, to garner sympathy for their ideology.

E-Mail George Lujack: georgelujack@gmail.com