Why Declaring Critical Media (Like CNN and MSNBC) "Illegal" Is a FuckWaffle Assault on American Liberty

There's something profoundly disturbing about watching a powerful figure stand in the Department of Justice—the very temple of American legal authority—and declare that news outlets critical of him should be "illegal." It's like watching someone piss on the Constitution while standing in front of the Supreme Court. The audacity is breathtaking. The danger is real. And the constitutional violations are so fucking obvious that even a first-year law student could spot them from orbit.

When a public official claims that news outlets like CNN and MSNBC are "illegal" because they "literally write 97.6 percent bad about me" and insists "it has to stop," we're not just witnessing a temper tantrum—we're watching an attempted demolition of the First Amendment. When this same figure describes these media organizations as "political arms of the Democrat party" that are "corrupt and illegal" while addressing prosecutors and law enforcement officers, the threat level cranks up from concerning to five-alarm constitutional crisis.

Let's cut through the bullshit and examine why such statements represent a fundamental misunderstanding—or worse, a deliberate perversion—of American constitutional principles. This isn't a matter of partisan politics; it's about the bedrock of our republic and the fierce defense it demands from every citizen who gives a damn about liberty.

The First Amendment: Not a Goddamn Suggestion

The First Amendment isn't complicated. It states, with beautiful clarity: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Those fourteen words represent one of the most powerful protections of liberty ever conceived by human minds. They don't come with an asterisk saying "unless the coverage is 97.6 percent negative" or "except when it makes powerful people uncomfortable."

When the Founders crafted this amendment, they weren't naive about the messiness of a free press. They weren't creating a system where media would be fair, balanced, or even particularly nice. They were establishing a fundamental principle: governmental power must never be used to silence criticism.

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black put it perfectly in New York Times Co. v. United States when he wrote that "the press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people." Not to make politicians look good. Not to achieve some arbitrary notion of "balance." But to serve as a watchdog against power.

The suggestion that negative coverage of a public figure should be "illegal" isn't just wrong—it's dangerously, destructively, catastrophically wrong. It represents a fundamental misreading of the Constitution that would gut its most essential protections. James Madison would be reaching for the bourbon if he heard such nonsense today.

The Federalist Papers and a Press Free to Be a Pain in the Ass

Let's dig deeper into what the architects of our Constitution actually believed about the press. In Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton argued against those demanding a Bill of Rights by pointing out that freedom of the press was already implicitly protected in the original Constitution. He wrote, "What is the liberty of the press? Who can give it any definition which would not leave the utmost latitude for evasion?"

In other words, Hamilton recognized that true press freedom needed to be virtually unlimited to be meaningful at all. Any attempt to define its boundaries would inevitably become a tool for restricting it.

When the Bill of Rights was later added, the First Amendment's protections of press freedom were intentionally absolute in their language. There's no qualification, no caveat, no "except when the coverage is deemed unfair." The Founders understood something that seems forgotten today: a press that can be controlled by government is no free press at all.

In Federalist No. 51, Madison famously wrote that "if men were angels, no government would be necessary." The corollary is equally important—since government is run by fallible humans with ambitions and egos, a free press is absolutely necessary as a check on their power. The messier and more aggressive that press is, the better it serves its constitutional function.

Madison didn't envision a press that would be handcuffed by some arbitrary standard of fairness or positivity. He envisioned a press that would be free to be a tremendous pain in the ass to those in power—because that's exactly what democracy requires.

The Supreme Court's Crystal Clear Position: Criticism Is Not a Crime

The Supreme Court has consistently and emphatically upheld the right of the press to criticize public officials, even in the harshest terms. In New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), the Court established that public officials cannot win a libel case without proving "actual malice"—meaning the publisher knew the information was false or showed reckless disregard for the truth. This high bar was intentionally set to ensure robust, uninhibited criticism of government.

Justice William Brennan wrote in that landmark decision: "Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."

Let that sink in for a moment. The highest court in our land explicitly protected "vehement, caustic, and unpleasantly sharp attacks" on officials. Not because such attacks are always fair or accurate, but because the alternative—government control of acceptable criticism—is fundamentally incompatible with democracy.

In Bridges v. California (1941), the Court declared that "it is a prized American privilege to speak one's mind, although not always with perfect good taste, on all public institutions." And in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), the Court unanimously protected even outrageously offensive satire directed at public figures.

The constitutional jurisprudence couldn't be clearer: The First Amendment specifically protects the press's right to be harsh, critical, and even unfair in its coverage of public officials. Any suggestion that critical coverage should be criminalized is a direct assault on this established constitutional principle.

The Dangerous Fantasy of "Corrupt and Illegal" Media

Now let's address the specific claim that media organizations functioning as "political arms" of a party are somehow "corrupt and illegal." This assertion reveals a profound misunderstanding of both constitutional law and American media history.

First, there is absolutely no constitutional prohibition against partisan media. During the early republic—the very era when the First Amendment was adopted—newspapers were explicitly and proudly partisan. Publications like the Gazette of the United States (pro-Federalist) and the National Gazette (pro-Republican) were unabashedly aligned with political movements and parties. The Founders didn't just tolerate this arrangement; they actively participated in it. Thomas Jefferson himself helped establish the National Gazette to counter Federalist influence.

The idea that media outlets must maintain some kind of artificial neutrality to be legitimate is not a constitutional principle—it's a relatively recent professional norm that has no legal standing whatsoever. A news organization can be nakedly partisan and still enjoy complete First Amendment protection.

Second, the claim that critical coverage makes media "corrupt and illegal" fundamentally misunderstands the concept of corruption in a legal context. Media "corruption" would involve behaviors like blackmail, bribery, or fabrication—not editorial decisions about what news to cover or how to frame it. Negative coverage, even if unbalanced or unfair, is not corruption in any meaningful legal sense.

When a powerful figure describes critical media as "illegal" while speaking at the Department of Justice, it's not just factually wrong—it's dangerous as fuck. It suggests that law enforcement should view constitutionally protected press activities as criminal. It attempts to criminalize criticism itself. And it sends a chilling signal to journalists that their work could put them in legal jeopardy if it displeases the powerful.

The Constitutional Stakes: Democracy or Authoritarianism

Make no mistake: attempting to criminalize critical media coverage isn't just a constitutional error—it's a defining feature of authoritarian regimes worldwide. From Russia to Turkey, from Hungary to Venezuela, attacking and criminalizing independent media is always step one in the authoritarian playbook.

When leaders in those countries declare critical media "illegal," we rightfully condemn it as an attack on democratic principles. When it happens in America, the response should be even more forceful, because it represents a betrayal of our most fundamental constitutional values.

The Founders designed our system specifically to prevent the concentration of power that would allow officials to silence their critics. They created a Constitution that places the freedom to criticize at the very heart of American liberty. They understood that democracy dies when criticism becomes a crime.

President Harry Truman once wrote a scathing letter to a music critic who panned his daughter's singing performance. But he also said, "I never thought that the Constitution conferred a right to criticize a President's daughter, but I guess it does." That's the American way—recognizing that even criticism we hate is protected by principles we must defend.

The Practical Reality: Why "97.6 Percent Bad" Coverage Isn't a Constitutional Crisis

Beyond the high-minded constitutional principles, there's also the practical reality that the percentage of "bad" coverage a public figure receives is utterly irrelevant to its legality.

The claim that outlets write "97.6 percent bad about me" (a suspiciously precise figure that seems pulled from thin air) attempts to transform a subjective complaint about tone into a legal argument. But the Constitution doesn't guarantee positive coverage. It doesn't mandate balance. It simply prohibits government from interfering with the press's editorial judgments.

There are many reasons coverage of a public figure might be predominantly negative that have nothing to do with media corruption:

1. The figure might be doing things that genuinely warrant criticism

2. The figure might be routinely making false statements that responsible journalism must correct

3. The figure might be taking actions that generate legitimate controversy

4. The figure might be actively antagonistic toward the press, generating a contentious relationship

None of these scenarios represents a constitutional problem—in fact, they represent the press doing exactly what it's constitutionally designed to do: scrutinize power and hold it accountable.

If a public figure is concerned about negative coverage, the constitutional remedy isn't to criminalize the press—it's to engage with it more effectively, provide better information, or simply accept that criticism comes with the territory of public service. As President Harry Truman famously advised, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

The Justice Department's Role: Defending the Constitution, Not Political Egos

There's a special kind of perversity in making such claims at the Department of Justice headquarters while addressing prosecutors and law enforcement officers. The DOJ's mission is to "enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law," with a special responsibility to uphold the Constitution.

Law enforcement officers take an oath to the Constitution, not to any individual. The suggestion that they should view critical media as "illegal" isn't just wrong—it's an invitation to violate their most sacred professional obligation. It asks them to betray their oath in service of protecting a powerful individual's ego.

Former Attorney General Robert Jackson warned in 1940 that "the prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America." With that power comes an absolute responsibility to apply the law equally and constitutionally—not to be weaponized against a leader's critics.

When public officials pressure law enforcement to view constitutionally protected activities as criminal, they're not just misunderstanding the law—they're actively undermining the rule of law itself. They're suggesting that law enforcement serve power rather than justice. And they're corrupting the very institutions they claim to be defending.

The Deeper Threat: When Leaders Don't Understand Constitutional Limits

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of such statements is what they reveal about the speaker's understanding of constitutional limits on power. The Constitution isn't designed primarily to empower the government—it's designed to limit it, to create boundaries it cannot cross regardless of popular or personal desire.

When a leader suggests that negative coverage "has to be illegal," they're not just expressing frustration—they're revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of America's constitutional design. They're suggesting that their personal preferences should override constitutional principles. They're advocating for a system where power dictates truth rather than being constrained by it.

The late Justice Antonin Scalia, certainly no liberal, wrote that "the First Amendment is not an anti-establishment clause. It is a guarantee of religious liberty and of other forms of expression." In other words, the First Amendment isn't a suggestion—it's a hard limit on governmental power, regardless of who holds that power or how justified they feel in exercising it.

A leader who doesn't understand or respect these limits isn't just making a technical error—they're revealing an authoritarian instinct fundamentally at odds with American constitutional governance. They're demonstrating that they see the Constitution not as the supreme law that binds them, but as an inconvenient obstacle to be overcome.

The Historical Perspective: When Leaders Attack the Press

History offers plenty of examples of what happens when leaders successfully criminalize criticism. From the 1798 Sedition Act (which made it illegal to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government) to various wartime censorship regimes, attempts to control critical media have consistently been recognized as constitutional failures, not successes.

The Sedition Act led to the prosecution of numerous newspaper editors who criticized President John Adams—including a Congressman who was imprisoned for publishing a letter critical of Adams' "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice." When Thomas Jefferson became president, he pardoned those convicted under the Act and helped ensure it wasn't renewed, calling such prosecutions "a nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image."

More recently, when the Nixon administration attempted to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Supreme Court firmly rejected prior restraint on publication. Justice Hugo Black wrote that "the Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government."

These historical lessons are clear: when leaders try to criminalize criticism, they're not defending democracy—they're attacking it. They're attempting to use governmental power precisely as the Founders feared it might be used: to silence dissent and shield themselves from accountability.

The Way Forward: Defending Constitutional Principles

So where do we go from here? How do we respond when powerful figures suggest that critical media should be illegal?

First, we must recognize such statements for what they are: direct attacks on the Constitution's most fundamental protections. We must understand that they represent a vision of America incompatible with its founding principles and centuries of constitutional jurisprudence.

Second, we must defend press freedom vigorously, regardless of our political affiliations or our personal feelings about specific media outlets. The constitutional principle at stake transcends partisan divisions. Whether you love or hate CNN or MSNBC is irrelevant to whether they have a constitutional right to exist and to criticize freely.

Third, we must demand that our leaders—all of them—demonstrate a basic understanding of and respect for constitutional limits on their power. We must recognize that a leader who views constitutional constraints as optional or who sees criticism as criminal isn't just expressing a policy preference—they're revealing a fundamental incompatibility with the office they hold.

And finally, we must remember that democracy requires a free press—not a perfect press, not an always-fair press, not a press that makes everyone happy, but a press free to criticize, investigate, and yes, even annoy those in power.

As journalists A.J. Liebling famously observed, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." In America, the Constitution ensures that ownership doesn't require government permission or approval. It ensures that criticism, even harsh criticism, can't be criminalized to soothe powerful egos.

Conclusion: The Constitutional Bottom Line

The constitutional analysis of claims that critical media outlets are "illegal" isn't complicated: such claims are unequivocally, undeniably, and unambiguously wrong. They represent a vision of governmental power explicitly rejected by the Constitution and consistently rejected by the Supreme Court. They attempt to criminalize the very freedom that the First Amendment was specifically designed to protect.

When a leader stands in the Department of Justice and suggests that critical coverage should be illegal, they're not just expressing frustration—they're advocating for the dismantling of constitutional governance itself. They're proposing a system where power determines truth, where criticism becomes crime, and where the First Amendment is reduced from a guarantee to a mere suggestion.

Such a system isn't America as the Founders envisioned it or as generations have defended it. It's America with its constitutional heart cut out—a nation that preserves the forms of democracy while emptying them of meaning.

The answer to criticism isn't criminalization—it's better leadership. The response to negative coverage isn't legal threats—it's more transparent governance. And the cure for a media environment a leader finds unfair isn't prosecutorial power—it's more effective communication.

The Constitution doesn't guarantee anyone—even the most powerful—protection from criticism. It guarantees exactly the opposite: that criticism, even the harshest kind, will remain forever beyond the government's power to silence. That guarantee isn't a bug in the American system—it's its defining feature and its greatest strength.

Any leader who fails to understand this fundamental principle doesn't just misunderstand the Constitution—they misunderstand America itself.

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Citations:

1. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). The Supreme Court's landmark decision establishing the "actual malice" standard for public officials in defamation cases, which created strong constitutional protections for criticism of public officials.

2. Madison, J. (1788). Federalist No. 51. In this essential founding document, Madison articulates the need for checks on power in a republican system, providing the philosophical foundation for press freedom as a check on governmental authority.