Senators’ calls for censorship threaten democracy
OPINION:
Last week, Tucker Carlson opened his show on Fox News with a sample of the more than 40,000 hours of video of the Jan. 6 protest/riot/insurrection.
For reasons that remain unclear, those few minutes of video sent some of the political class in Washington into a spiral of vituperation, anger and craziness. The most unhinged, hysterical and asymmetrical response was, of course, from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, who demanded — from the floor of the United States Senate no less — that Mr. Carlson be prevented from showing any more of the video from Jan. 6.
His argument, in full, was that showing the video may result in voters coming to unsanctioned conclusions about the entirety of what happened on that date. To summarize Mr. Schumer’s outburst: Protecting democracy, in this instance, demands censorship.
We understand. It must be frustrating to have constructed a narrative and nursed it carefully for more than two years and then have someone like Mr. Carlson threaten to upend all of that work by allowing people to see the video evidence unfiltered and unaltered.
The good news for everyone involved in this — on both sides — is that, for better or worse, the United States is about the future, not the past. That’s probably all for the best. Most Americans don’t carry around long-held tribal or religious grievances; they don’t have the time or inclination.
Consequently, it is unlikely that many are concerned about getting to the bottom of what happened on Jan. 6. Even Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who nominally chaired the Jan. 6 committee, acknowledged that neither he nor the other members of Congress who populated the committee could be bothered to view any of the video of Jan. 6 for themselves. They delegated that chore to staff.
That said, there is, of course, no real reason not to release all 40,000 hours of video — which was paid for and is ultimately owned by the taxpayers — into the wild and let those who do care about Jan. 6 make their own judgments about what happened and to whom. It is, as young people like to say, a no-brainer.
The much more troubling part of this story is the reaction of our “leaders.” The idea that U.S. senators — including the Senate minority leader and at least three other Republican senators — would encourage censorship is repulsive and profoundly anti-American. If you are interested in thinking about threats to democracy, you might wonder about how these men square their own calls for censorship, however veiled, with their oath of office.
Who has done more damage to democracy: the Jan. 6 rioters, or those senators who — directly or sotto voce — have called for media censorship?
Who are the true arsonists: a handful of mostly lost and clueless outsiders who got carried away and now face appropriate and mostly mild judicial consequences, or the majority leader of the Senate who has previously threatened Supreme Court justices with violence?
Who has disgraced the floor of the Senate more: a costumed fool who was led to the chamber by the Capitol Police, or the majority leader who called from that very floor for media censorship?
It’s time to release all the video to the public. Protecting democracy, in this instance, demands it.
