The world is divided between free, democratic nations and dictatorships. This battle between freedom and tyranny is the defining ideological battle of our age.
Here in America, we take our freedom for granted, which is foolish and dangerous. Freedom is precious, paid for with lakes of human blood.
I was driving around Jackson on a recent spring day. Spring in Mississippi starts on Feb. 15, when temperatures take a dramatic leap forward the last half of the month. You could see the blossoms starting to bloom.
Spring has always been my favorite season. There is change in the air. The cold days are receding. There is a feeling of renewal and rebirth.
As I drove around and looked at the houses, buildings and streets, with all their physical imperfections, I had a profound sense of seeing, or at least sensing, the palpable presence of freedom everywhere.
Every driver and pedestrian was going about their business as a free person with dignity and self worth. There was no fear in the air. There was freedom in the air. The physical imperfections were diminished to insignificance overwhelmed by the beauty of freedom as far as I could see.
So what is freedom? That’s simple. In the United States you can say whatever you want about any politician without fear of retribution by the government.
I have been writing editorials and opinion columns for 40 years. I have been harshly critical of governmental authorities innumerable times. Never once have I been threatened with arrest in any way by any governmental official. Never once have I been censored. Nor has any other journalist in my organization.
Ironically, at this moment Chuck Espy, the mayor of Clarksdale, is calling for a boycott of the Clarksdale Press Register and Emmerich Newspapers. He has posted Facebook videos calling Press Register publisher Floyd Ingram “evil, wicked and racist.”
What did we do to deserve this? According to Mayor Espy, we failed to put the dedication of a new Wing Stop on the front page and failed to cover the renaming of a street from “Confederate Street” to “Faith Street.”
In reality, Espy doesn’t like us because our editor continues to report crime, school failures and governmental waste. Basically, Espy is full of hate and anger because we are doing our job and reporting the local news, good and bad, something that is sadly on decline these days.
My point is this: Mayor Espy can huff and puff all he wants, but the First Amendment of the United States Constitution wisely protects freedom of the press and freedom of speech. No local mayor can override that. And, by the way, Chuck Espy is the only mayor in my 40 years of small-town publishing who has ever even tried. We trust readers and voters can see through this charade.
I do not take this blessing for granted. If I were in Russia, China, Turkey, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and countless other countries, Mayor Espy could have me and Floyd Ingram arrested and thrown in jail on some vague charge such as “insulting the government.” In Mexico, we would just be shot.
The non-profit Freedom House has been reporting on world freedom for the last 47 years. They say only 20 percent of the world’s citizens live in a free country. The United States is now the most populous free country in the world.
This year the Freedom House declared that India is no longer a “free” country, dropping to “partly free” thanks to the ongoing crackdown on political dissent and the free press, and the scapegoating of Muslims by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. That’s a huge blow to world freedom.
Thanks to the rise of social media and better communications, millions of Americans can express their views more easily with blogs, online comments and various social posts — all without the fear of government harassment. Such posts can get you arrested in China, Russia and most places in the world.
The internet started out with such great hope as an agent for change and freedom. Unfortunately, dictatorships have turned the internet into the perfect medium to spy on its citizens and repress dissent.
I am concerned about the internet in our country, as the government has allowed Google, Facebook and Twitter to become far too powerful and dominant. This is a threat to freedom that we need to take seriously.
Back in my day, the nation became alarmed when newspaper publisher Gannett acquired over three percent of the total U. S. newspaper circulation. Yet nobody seems to be concerned that three companies control 90 percent of the thought and social discourse in our nation today.
This was all caused by the passage of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996, which gave online platforms immunity from lawsuits. The idea was the Internet was so young and fragile it needed special help to get off the ground.
Well, it got off the ground. And now it’s clear that Congress created a monster — a monster that has destroyed real journalism, especially local journalism in America, including my 100-year-old company. Yes, I am bitter about this.
The Supreme Court has announced that they will finally hear two cases over Section 230. Facebook hosted terrorists on its platform. Parents of the terrorist victims are appealing the Section 230 legal shield that has so far protected Facebook.
Section 230, by law, only protects platforms that don’t edit or manipulate content, like a phone company doesn’t edit your phone calls. But we all know Facebook and Google are not inactive transmitters of data. They clearly and deliberately manipulate and edit every bit of content that appears on our screens.
If the Supreme Court removes the legal immunity enjoyed by Facebook, Twitter and Google, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it. I wouldn’t bet on it.
