“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This is the entirety of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Widely known as the foundation of America, the rights protected in this amendment are typically agreed to be sacred to any successful democracy.
Wars have been fought and lives have been lost to protect these principles. Students are taught throughout their years of history classes what happens to countries in which the government controls all output of information.
Acclaimed authors like George Orwell and Ray Bradbury wrote “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451,” respectively, about the dangers of government censorship.
It is for this reason that President Trump’s ban of three news outlets on Sept. 18 should be a bipartisan concern.
CNN, MSNOW and Politico were all barred from entering the White House on Friday, Sept. 19 after their passes were “disabled” according to NPR. This is another decision that supports the thinking that Trump has built his administration on shock value. According to him, the decision to exclude these news stations was not an attack on free press, but an attack on the “fake news” that he claims has been targeting him.
The President did not cite a specific press release that triggered this action, but instead stated it was a culmination of years of unwarranted criticism. While it may be tiring to hear people publish information one does not agree with, this frustration does not give anyone the right to dismiss the First Amendment.
According to Dr. William Davie, communication law and ethics professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, this decision is in direct opposition with the values of the office President Trump holds.
“He has challenged the very structure that he was sworn to uphold,” Davie said. It is also crucial to understand that the President operates in a public forum, which constitutionally prevents him from excluding publications on the basis of content.
Davie emphasized the importance of the case Sherrill vs. Knight (1977). This case set a precedent for the rights of the press to operate free of government control or exclusion. In a world that is changing so quickly, it can be easy to forget that history repeats itself. In these circumstances, we as a country must look back in our nation’s history and learn from what was ruled in previous cases.
In the case of Robert Sherrill, he was denied from the White House without explanation or proper due process. The D.C. circuit courts eventually ruled in favor of Sherrill and upheld the freedom of the press. When the same narrative played out on Sept. 18, 2026, however, the Trump administration adamantly defended the decision on the basis of national security threats.
This issue was not brought up at the initial briefing after the ban, however, the administration leaned heavily on this excuse in the following days. This raised many questions of whether the White House was using the vague reasoning of national security concerns as an excuse to facilitate viewpoint discrimination.
Journalists throughout the White House spoke out about this blatant disregard for their 1st and 5th Amendment rights. Fox News, a conservative leaning news station that President Trump has supported in the past, even joined the statement of many other news sources that criticized this decision.
This issue has drawn immense national attention. While many workings of the government are carefully woven into legal documents and bills, this was a visible and blatant disregard for the constitution of our nation.
Journalists are under great scrutiny, now more than ever. The President’s accusations of “fake news” have encouraged some to use this term more and more loosely, encompassing “fake news” as any published information they disagree with.
This was never the goal of America. The First Amendment stands to protect each and every person’s right of speech, even and especially if they are controversial.
That being said, journalistic integrity is also of the utmost importance. The modern age has brought about more avenues for misinformation than ever, and social media often serves as an enormous rumor mill most of the time. That is why it is important for journalists to be educated and qualified in their reporting.
If there are issues with journalists’ factual reporting, this should be addressed through the proper legal proceedings.
The answer to misinformation or so called “fake news” should never include the disregard of the First Amendment.