Malicious communication
The limits on speech are becoming clearer, as is the need to speak up
“The ego has landed.”
When we talked to journalist Tom Sykes earlier this week, he hypothesized that Donald Trump would be unlikely to receive a warm welcome during his second state visit to the United Kingdom. And in large part, Trump got what Sykes expected — he was met by protests, and by projections, as activists projected a montage of photos of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and excerpts from the Epstein documents on the walls of Windsor Castle.
The question of whether Britain might not return the favor of World War II and come to the aid of its ally, threatened by fascism, even symbolically, remains unanswered. The artists who put on the projections — from the activist group Led by Donkeys — once defended by then-barrister Keir Starmer — were arrested on charges of “malicious communication” under a 1988 British law that punishes communication “of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,” sent for the purposes of causing “distress or anxiety to the recipient” with up to two years in prison.
There were those who welcomed Trump to the U.K. — among them far-right leader Tommy Robinson, who led large marches in London this past Saturday, an event he described as a “free-speech festival.” Those crowds were addressed over a streaming video feed by self-styled free speech absolutist Elon Musk:
“My appeal is to British common sense, which is to look carefully around you and say: ‘If this continues, what world will you be living in?... Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”
Malicious communication, no? There may be some inconsistencies in the application of that statute.
Back in the U.S., there are — at least on paper — laws that guard against this sort of thing. In practice, what exactly constitutes freedom of speech now has gotten very foggy, what with the crackdown on speech that’s ramped up since the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
And last night, news broke that comedian and late-night ABC television host Jimmy Kimmel had been let go, purportedly for making light of Kirk’s murder — the fact that he didn’t actually do that, and was in fact setting up a joke about MAGA allies’ cynical use of the murder and Trump’s apparent callousness, is perhaps beside the point.
But even that mild criticism appears to be beyond the pale, enough to drive FCC Chair Brendan Carr (also a former free-speech absolutist) to threaten regulatory action against ABC.
“Great news for America,” Trump wrote. “The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
And perhaps there’s something to that. Kimmel isn’t the first high-profile comedian to be fired this year, and his contract was to be up for renewal next year. You’ll recall that Stephen Colbert’s CBS Late Show was dropped by CBS, “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” according to that network, and not to curry favor with the White House ahead of a pending merger with Skydance. CBS has, oddly enough, since been rolled into Trump ally and richest-man-in-the-world-for-now Larry Ellison’s expanding media empire. Go figure.
Financial decision, sure — and that’s likely on the minds of the decision-makers. But that doesn’t make it any better. Realpolitik isn’t an excuse, but simply an explanation, or maybe a rationalization. And if major media corporations are finding common cause with a government assault on expression to protect the bottom line — that’s right out of the authoritarian playbook, too.
But in the case of media, that does leave an opening. Just look at all of the veteran journalists who’ve struck out on their own in this era, doing new things, like publishing independent newsletters. Or launching independent print newspapers.
It’s going to be a long haul, but the construction of that parallel infrastructure is underway.
"It’s going to be a long haul, but the construction of that parallel infrastructure is underway." And not just media, but also political and economic. Basically, we need to build a parallel nation.
Every Substack writer needs to offer concrete action items with every article or comment. Chris Murphy’s words “we need to organize now” just blow away in the wind. Disney has its tentacles everywhere, from ABC to Hulu, to ESPN. Cancel cancel. No more “shoulds” or “need to’s” or “musts”. Sheesh. So many words. “Show up” is not helpful either.