Journalist and host of RT’s “Going Underground” program Afshin Rattansi said that mainstream media undermines the US Founding Fathers’ vision of the First Amendment and freedom of expression in an interview on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Thursday.
“What does it say on the masthead of Amazon.com [owner] Jeff Bezos' newspaper over there – The Washington Post – ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness?’” asked Rattansi.
“I mean, clearly there's no democracy in the United States then, because we haven't even heard the interview,” he noted. “We haven't even watched the interview yet. And every network in the United States is telling people to lock up their children in case they see this interview on television.”
“I mean, this is not what the Founding Fathers of the United States wanted when they wrote the First Amendment, is it?” he added.
The First Amendment is perhaps the most famous addition to the US Constitution. The amendment enumerates numerous rights to American citizens, including freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and – crucially – freedom of speech.
Along with freedom of the press, America’s founders hoped free expression would supply US citizens with the ability to thoroughly examine and debate the issues of the day, providing a crucial check against the tyranny of the federal government. But host Jamarl Thomas suggested that the demonization of certain views is preventing the First Amendment from functioning as intended.
“It also comes across as a brittle spirit,” said Thomas, referencing an observation by US comedian Dave Chappelle. “It's like we – our narrative – can't hold up to an opposition point of view. It's that, and maybe Putin says something that makes sense, maybe says something that's true, and what would that mean for our particular point of view, if indeed [it’s] something that is true, that contradicts what we're saying?”
“I got to be honest, that is cancerous,” he added. “That is cancerous to society. There's a First Amendment for a reason.”
“It's exactly what totalitarian countries do,” agreed Rattansi. “They'll be able to watch the interview [with Vladimir Putin] and make their own decisions about what this appalling war that has cost so many lives is all about.”
US President Thomas Jefferson once declared that “enlightened people and an energetic public opinion” should work together to combat the “aristocratic spirit of the government.” Jefferson was fiercely egalitarian, skeptical of elites, and faithful in average peoples’ ability to educate and govern themselves as free people.
If the United States is to be a free country, Americans must retain this sacred right to hear and consider all points of view. Even Russian ones.