Because it’s wrong — and anti-Constitutional — for a president to threaten to use government to punish protected speech. Period. Even if the president’s threats amount to nothing, individuals and companies fear the government’s awesome power enough that they might decide poking fun at the president isn’t worth the risk: When a president threatens censorship — and that’s precisely what Trump is doing — the chances of self-censorship go up. The president is trying to bully a notable critic into silence: NBC and Saturday Night Live can probably take the pressure, but what about an individual or a publication that doesn’t have access to the same powerful lawyers and deep pockets?
The First Amendment sometimes feels fragile because it’s so often used to defend unpopular speech. Who really wants to be on the side of Larry Flynt or Fred Phelps? The administration went after Jim Acosta a few weeks ago not just because White House officials dislike the CNN correspondent, but because they knew Acosta’s occasional grandstanding can make other journalists uncomfortable — the administration wanted to see if it could divide the press corps into journalists more and less deserving of First Amendment protections. That’s why Trump targets SNL now: If you’re not a fan, maybe you want to shrug and wait for a more noble cause to come along. By then, though, it might be too late. Better to push back now instead of waiting for real damage to be done.
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