Like Trump, Ron DeSantis targeting First Amendment and press freedom
During the 2024 presidential primary season, Ron DeSantis was heralded as a “conservative” alternative to Donald Trump, but ever since the election, he has proven to those paying attention that there’s no difference between the two when it comes to their willingness to shred the Constitution for the sake of protecting themselves. Case in point: Ron DeSantis targeting the First Amendment and press freedom rights of an Orlando Sentinal reporter who has been exposing some very unflattering things about the Florida governor and his wife.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Orlando Sentinel reporter accusing him of using threats to coerce negative statements about the Florida First Lady’s Hope Florida initiative. The letter was unsigned and posted on social media (via USAToday.com):
By sending and posting on social media an unsigned cease-and-desist letter to an Orlando Sentinel reporter, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration infringed on press freedom by demanding that reporting stop about an initiative spearheaded by his wife, First Amendment attorneys say.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF), which houses the Hope Florida program, sent a letter June 6 addressed to Sentinel reporter Jeffrey Schweers and its executive editor, Roger Simmons. It accuses Schweers of using “threats” to coerce foster families who had experienced damages to their homes after Hurricanes Helene and Milton to make “negative statements about Hope Florida for his reporting.”
The letter could be construed as “prior restraint,” according to Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in First Amendment law. Prior restraint is when the government tries to stop the press from publishing something before it’s printed or broadcast, which is generally considered unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Calvert said the letter and the administration’s attendant social media attention on it also fall into a pattern created by President Donald Trump of creating a “hostile environment for the news media.” Calvert referred to the Trump administration’s threats to defund public media and barring the Associated Press from White House events. (Emphasis mine)
Even though certain Conservative, Inc. talking heads in the media (I won’t mention any names, but his initials are Steve Deace) spent a lot of time defending DeSantis as a “not Trump” Republican in 2024 before selling out to their mango messiah, the Florida governor has been living on the edge of full-blown Trumpism.
Ron DeSantis has been at war with the First Amendment throughout his term as Florida governor, and it was foundational to his 2024 presidential ambitions. During his run for reelection as governor in 2022 — a practice run for the 2024 presidential race — DeSantis joined Trump to target unfavorable free speech when he announced new state legislation designed to crack down on Big Tech for their alleged bias against conservatives.
“What began as a group of upstart technology companies from the west coast, has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens,” DeSantis said from the Cabinet Meeting Room. He also ranted about how ‘Big Tech’ is becoming more like ‘Big Brother’ with “each passing day.”
Somehow, I don’t think DeSantis has ever read George Orwell’s 1984 because if he had, he would know that “Big Brother” was the name given to tyrannical big government — the same kind of government that he apparently supports.
Ironically, DeSantis’ attempt to criminalize the free press rights of the Orlando Sentinal comes on the heels of a move by Donald Trump to literally make reporting unfavorable news about his administration a crime.
Trump began taking action in this direction just days after the 2024 election when he ordered his bought and paid for Republican Party buddies in the Senate to “KILL” a bill designed to protect press freedom. The bill, known as the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act, would have protected reporters and journalists from government bullying and had already unanimously passed the GOP-controlled House.
Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to exact retribution on his political rivals and critics — including members of the press — using the guidelines provided by Project 2025 and the accompanying Agenda 47. Using Project 2025 as his instruction manual, Trump planned to rein in the free press beginning with a renewed emphasis on expanding libel laws to make it easier to sue media outlets for spreading “fake news.”
But suing the media out of business is child’s play compared to throwing reporters in jail (via AlterNet.org):
In a Monday morning, April 28 post on his Truth Social platform, President Donald Trump — angry over his low approval ratings in recent polls — called for the New York Times, ABC News, the Washington Post and others to be “investigated for election fraud.”
In an article published by Salon on April 29, Austin Sarat — a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts — warn[ed] that the Trump Administration and the Trump-era DOJ are quite serious about using the legal system against reporters.
“While no journalists are presently in jail in this country for doing their jobs, prosecuting and punishing them is a regular part of the arsenal of repressive regimes around the world. And the atmosphere for the American press is by no means friendly. April alone saw a dramatic escalation of threats.”(Emphasis mine)
None other than Attorney General Pam Bondi herself made Trump’s intentions in this area perfectly clear in a memo revoking First Amendment protections for reporters (via Salon.com):
Bondi’s new memo chastises the news media for publishing leaked material “that undermine(s) President Trump’s policies, victimize(s) government agencies, and cause(s) harm to the American people”.
Calling such activity Illegal and immoral, the Attorney General said she would be personally responsible for approving “efforts to question or arrest members of the news media.”
There you have it. Journalists are put on notice that if they publish leaked material that “undermine(s) President Trump’s policies,” they may be arrested. (Emphasis mine)
I leave you with these words from Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black written over 50 years ago after a leak of the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and Washington post:
“In the First Amendment, the founding fathers gave the Free Press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy… the government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press could remain forever free to censure the government.”
“The press was protected so that it could bear the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” (Emphasis mine)
From his first day as governor of Florida until now, Ron DeSantis has been held up as a “conservative” beacon in the Republican Party, but his attack on freedom of the press and his similarities with Donald Trump in this area prove that he is nothing of the sort.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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