Let's talk — no muzzle on me or you
Twenty-nine years ago next month, I came on board with a fledgling cable channel. The start-up’s novel idea was to appeal directly to conservatives, people who voted for Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 — or what Richard Nixon famously called his “silent majority.”
The conservatives who started Fox News knew exactly what they were getting with me. I had worked at the Washington Post and CNN. In popular books, I had called out politicians, right and left. As a Black writer, I was known to trade punches with Black politicians.
Fox’s founders wanted me to debate star right-wing media personalities. I was happy to bring my credentials and counter their arguments. It made me sharper. And at Fox, it made for good television. Ratings climbed as viewers welcomed furious, right-leaning debates among informed people.
It’s in this spirit that I’ve been reflecting on the legacy of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, assassinated less than two weeks ago.
He built his name by inviting critics to challenge his ideas in the name of free speech. As Ezra Klein put it in The New York Times, “You can dislike much of what Kirk believed, and the following statement is still true: Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him.”
Now contrast that with the disturbing comments from Attorney General Pam Bondi. I must protest when the nation’s top law enforcement officer talks about punishing “hate speech.”
As my Fox colleague Brit Hume tweeted: “Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. She should know this.”
Kirk himself once said: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”
Erick Erickson, a conservative and someone I’ve learned from in debate, was even more blunt:
“Our Attorney General is apparently a moron. ‘There’s free speech and then there is hate speech.’ No ma’am. That is not the law.”
The attorney general’s words carry weight. They cannot be brushed off as a gaffe when they come against a backdrop of the administration’s efforts to stifle critics. That includes the chair of the Federal Communications Commission saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” pressuring networks to fire late-night comedians who mock the president, as happened last week with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.
Add to this toxic mix President Trump’s frivolous lawsuits designed to inhibit critical coverage in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Trump personally threatened ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, telling him he will “probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate.”
Judges may ultimately dismiss these attacks, but mounting a costly legal defense is the punishment. Media companies often find it cheaper to cave than to defend principle. And in the Kimmel case they may fear government challenges to mergers and licensing. High fear of government retribution is also leading corporations to fire people who are not famous for posting critical comments about Kirk.
I know this storm all too well. Fourteen years ago, NPR fired me for telling Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that, immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, I felt nervous when I saw people in traditional Muslim garb boarding a plane with me.
By acknowledging my personal fear, I was trying to spark an honest discussion about the need for tolerance. My point had been that openly talking about hidden fears can help free people to think clearly and avoid bad policy.
But the politically correct crowd called me an anti-Muslim bigot. They didn’t like that I was on Fox, either.
You might even say I was the canary in the coal mine for what we now call "cancel culture." And when the blue team showed me the door, it was Rush Limbaugh, Andrew Breitbart, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin who rallied to my defense. Fox allowed me to stay on their air.
I wrote a best-selling book about it, “Muzzled – The Assault on Honest Debate.” The book warned against the anti–free speech forces I saw gathering on both left and right, especially online.
Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox (R) waved the same warning flag. “I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt we've seen over the last five, six years,” he said. “There is no question in my mind. ... What we have done to our kids. It has taken us a decade to understand how evil these algorithms really are.”
Throughout my time as a journalist, my message has been the same: liberals and conservatives, across racial and religious lines — “We the People,” Americans of all stripes — must find common ground in defense of honest debate and its lifeblood: free speech.
Without getting to know people who likely disagreed with me, I would never have enjoyed ballgames with my fellow Washington Nationals fan, the late Charles Krauthammer, or my fellow NBA fan, Fred Barnes. I would've never come to know influential Black conservatives like economist Thomas Sowell, Justice Clarence Thomas, or my friend, commentator Armstrong Williams.
Too many people — especially in the Trump era — are willing to demonize, even silence, opposing views. America: Stop It.
Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.”