Another not-so Thinly Veiled Attack on Free Speech
Recently, many so-called “right-wing” political commentators, such as Lauren Chen and Tim Pool, were exposed in a DOJ report to have financial ties to Russian media outlet Russia Today. According to the report, their media company Tenet received upwards of $400,000 a month for videos RT deemed favorable to their political agenda. The moral outrage against their ties to Russia, while understandable, is disastrously mixed, as many other political commentators are demanding the government put people in jail for disseminating Russian propaganda.
While the authenticity of this report could be questioned, whether or not they accepted money from a foreign, government-controlled media company doesn’t matter. Most sensible people viewing the content produced by Tenet could recognize the obvious favoritism given to Russia.
Even if they accepted millions of dollars, that would only constitute a moral crime, not an actual crime. Accepting payment for producing content slanted toward a particular perspective doesn’t transform such production into criminal activity, regardless of the source of such payments. As long as other people can voluntarily chose to accept or reject the views presented by this organization, their presentations do not constitute a crime. Tim Pool isn’t a hold-up man demanding people listen to his podcast, after all.
Given that no other person’s rights are violated (save, possibly, civil violations for leaders at Tenet withholding or misrepresenting these foreign relationships to other employees), the government should not interfere with these activities. The thinly veiled excuse of uncovering financial ties to a foreign government to jail people for advancing a perspective government officials regard as favorable to a foreign country is itself a much greater threat than anything presented by the accused commentators.
Like I said before, I find the moral outrage understandable. I myself do not agree with the views presented by members affiliated with Tenet. Though, that should not cloud your judgement about the absolute danger for demanding the government jail people for their views, whether caught in a financial technicality or not. This flimsy excuse is a justification for something far more sinister: policing people for what they think.
