Trump's Attacks on the Press Are Illegal. We're Suing.
Source: Politico
President Donald J. Trump’s frequent threats and hostile acts directed toward journalists and the media are not only offensive and unbecoming of a democratic leader; they are also illegal. In the Trump era, nasty rhetoric, insults and even threats of violence have become an occupational hazard for political reporters and commentators. To be sure, a good portion of President Trump’s verbal attacks on journalists and news organizations might be considered fair game in this bare-knuckled political moment. The president has free-speech rights just like the rest of us, and deeming the news media “the enemy of the American people” and dismissing accurate reports as “fake news” are permissible under the First Amendment.
But the First Amendment does not protect all speech. Although the president can launch verbal tirades against the press, he cannot use the powers of his office to suppress or punish speech he doesn’t like. When President Trump proposes government retribution against news outlets and reporters, his statements cross the line. Worse still, in several cases it appears that the bureaucracy he controls has acted on his demands, making other threats he issues to use his governmental powers more credible. Using the force of the presidency to punish or suppress legally protected speech strikes at the heart of the First Amendment, contravening the Constitution. Presidents are free to mock, needle, evade and even demean the press, but not to use the power of government to stifle it.
That is why this week PEN America, an organization of writers that defends free expression, together with the nonprofit organization Protect Democracy and the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Clinic, is filing suit in federal court seeking an order directing the president not to use the force of his office to exact reprisals against the press.
While the president’s actions are unprecedented, the law here is established. A 2015 judicial opinion by the Seventh Circuit’s (now-retired) Judge Richard Posner makes clear that “a public official who tries to shut down an avenue of expression of ideas and opinions through actual or threatened imposition of government power or sanction is violating the First Amendment.” Similarly, a 2003 Second Circuit opinion found that the First Amendment was violated when an official’s statements “can reasonably be interpreted as intimating that some form of punishment or adverse regulatory action will follow the failure to accede to the official’s request.’”
President Trump has engaged repeatedly in precisely the kind of behavior those courts have found unlawful.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/16/trumps-attacks-on-the-press-are-illegal-were-suing-221312
= new reply since forum marked as read
if the media actually did their fucking jobs back in 2016 instead of engineering their goddamned "horse race" and treating Trump like a LOL freakshow reality TV trainwreck celebrity while giving Hillary the microscopic scrutiny requisite to all legit presidential candidates, we wouldn't be in this nightmare of shit today... 
They created the monster and now they don't like when the monster attacks them. 
We can't spend too much time blaming them for their obvious failure, and I know I'm one of those who's been beating a dead horse. It's not 2016 any more and now is the time to pull up our britches and get to work. The journalists have learned their lesson well, and they're making it up in spades this year.
Next year they'll do even better, I just know it.
Faux News and some right-wing talk radio programs are probably guilty of the same sin, i.e. inciting violence or suppression efforts against media orgs they don't like.
However, Donny tRump cannot deal with anyone or anything that tries to control or limit him in any way. If the court decides against him, I'll bet he will fight it up to the nearest right-leaning court they can find to overturn.
tRump simply believes he is king of the USA and by extension, the world.......
