Renowned advocate of free speech Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has recently raised alarm over the potential perils of government censorship, indicating that it could serve as a precursor for “atrocity.”
His statement comes in the wake of a heated exchange with House Democrats at a censorship hearing last week. Kennedy emphasized free expression as an indispensable mainstay of democracy, warning that any attempts to restrict it by governmental authorities could lead to crippling ramifications.
“Government abuses every power that it’s given, and if government suddenly has the capacity to censor its critics, it has a license for any atrocity,” Kennedy cautioned during an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. In the annals of history, he noted, the act of stifling speech trends closer to infamous fates, dubbing the censors as “never the good guys.”
In the previous week’s hearing, a set of House Democrats, including Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, accused the potential 2024 presidential candidate of expressing racist sentiments for his remarks suggesting viruses could be “ethnically targeted.”
Kennedy voiced the need to take a bipartisan approach towards free speech, indicating that “liberal” should equate to freedom, specifically the freedom of speech.
He stressed that without this liberty, the concept of democracy would be compromised- an approach that is counter-intuitive to the ideals enshrined in the First Amendment.
There have also been attempts to quell Kennedy, attributed to his stance on Covid vaccines. Critics within his party have sought to silence him, demanding his exit from the hearing and extending their censorship calls to his prospective presidential campaign.
In a similar arena, the future of the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) is hanging in the balance, in light of an impending antitrust lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s organization, Children’s Health Defense.
The controversial coalition of international news organizations and technology companies often likened to the Orwellian “Ministry of Truth,” came under thorough examination by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. This important hearing probed the government’s role in suppressing American voices and its involvement in curtailing free speech.
Among those that testified were established journalist Emma-Jo Morris, notable for uncovering the infamous Hunter Biden laptop scandal for the New York Post in 2020, and Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Earlier this year, Kennedy’s organization filed a lawsuit against numerous TNI member organizations, contending that their alleged silencing of certain information breaches the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The TNI, founded by the BBC in 2019 and hailed as a legitimate shield against “disinformation,” is a collective that includes prestigious media corporations and technology firms such as Facebook, Microsoft, the Associated Press, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. However, despite its proclaimed mission to protect against misinformation, it is now under scrutiny, chiefly for allegedly censoring diverging perspectives of the COVID-19 pandemic origins and vaccinations, and silencing certain aspects of the Hunter Biden laptop issue.
Despite being a thorn in the eye of mainstream media for his stance against vaccinations, Kennedy has long insisted that the TNI serves as a machine for stifling free speech and suppressing content that challenges governmental or conventional narratives.
