Following the recent vice presidential debate, largely considered a win for Republican candidate JD Vance, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was hit with a significant fact-check about claims he made during the event. A post-debate analysis of Walz’s comments revealed a glaring falsehood that was missed by the CBS moderators who interjected to question the validity of Vance’s remarks during the discussion.
At one point in the debate, Vance called out Democrats for combating speech online they disagree with, mentioning instances in which the Biden-Harris administration pressured social media companies to ban users who criticized pandemic-era protocols. However, Walz claimed that “misinformation” isn’t protected by the First Amendment during the Ohio senator’s remarks.
The libertarian news outlet Reason offered a strong rebuttal to Walz’s assertion.“The would-be vice president is wrong to say that misinformation lacks First Amendment protection,” the outlet claimed, explaining how even outright lies are technically protected under the rights granted to United States citizens in the First Amendment.
Responding to Vance’s claims, Walz tried to claim that spreading misinformation is equivalent to shouting “fire” in a movie theater. However, libertarian journalist Robby Soave strongly disagreed with this assertion. Taking to X he wrote, “”You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” is one of those things people say that’s just completely wrong. It comes from a godawful World War I era Supreme Court decision that was subsequently overturned.”
Soave further wrote, “Today we recognize that the right to criticize U.S. military policy and oppose foreign wars is an essential component of the First Amendment.” He added, “And the Supreme Court agrees: Schenk was gradually overturned by subsequent decisions. The right to engage in speech that the government might deem reckless, dangerous, or hateful was explicitly affirmed in the 2017 case Matal v. Tam, in which Justice Samuel Alito observed ‘the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”‘ It could not be more simple: Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.”
Addressing the problem of misinformation, Soave’s solution is not to censor speech, but to promote free and unchecked discourse. “The Enlightenment principle that undergirds the First Amendment and democracy itself is that the best way to counter bad information is to allow everyone to speak,” he continued.
During the debate Vance said, “It’s a damning non answer for you to not talk about censorship. Obviously, Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020 we’ve talked about it. I’m happy to talk about it further. You guys attack us for not believing in democracy. The most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment. You yourself have said there’s no First Amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to threaten government and big tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this present political moment, I would like Democrats and Republicans to both reject censorship.
Watch the incident from the debate below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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