BY JOEL THURTELL
Screams from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
Those authoritarian Chinese booted our journalists!
But Trump expelled 60 Chinese journalists from the US.
Do foreign journalists have First Amendment rights?
Better question: do US journalists have First Amendment rights?
According to one newspaper owner, the answer is “NO!!”
Detroit Free Press/Detroit Media Partnership (Gannett) Human Resources Director Kirstin Starkey told The Newspaper Guild in 2007:
“Please be aware that First Amendment rights are limited to public institutions. The Free Press, a private employer, is not held to this standard.”
If a reporter is not protected by the First Amendment, who is?
According to Gannett, the First Amendment is the exclusive property of “private employers,” but not their employees.
So, the Detroit Free Press has First Amendment rights. Its owner, Gannett, has First Amendment rights.
The ones who don’t have First Amendment rights are the people who go out and get the news!
Look on the bright side.
American or Chinese, we are equals.
None of us has First Amendment rights.
