Hollywood Is Ready to Fight for the First Amendment

During the McCarthy era, Sen. Joseph McCarthy used government power, blacklists and a culture of fear to curtail a generation’s freedom of speech. But while we may refer to this period by his name, we could just as easily name it after the Committee for the First Amendment, a group Henry Fonda and other actors, directors and screenwriters used as a vehicle to organize Hollywood against government repression.

Today, the Committee for the First Amendment is back. Jane Fonda is carrying on her father’s legacy and building on her own success as a Hollywood actress and activist. She’s convened members of the entertainment industry to stop the federal government’s attempts to control free speech. In just about a month, she’s gotten thousands of her colleagues to join her efforts, including Academy Award winners Aaron Sorkin, Anne Hathaway and Ariana DeBose – and those are just a few of the A-listers.

Jane Fonda and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez defend free speech 

Alongside Fonda and FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, I presented at the Committee’s third meeting on Nov. 12. I explained how the federal government is abusing its powers over pending media mergers to censor critics and reward Trump cronies. From Skydance’s purchase of Paramount to Nexstar’s attempt to buy Tegna, the last few months have shown us what this strategy means: job cuts for journalists and creatives, diminished diversity of thought and experience on our airwaves — and real fear about speaking out.

I shared that none of these mergers are unstoppable if we work together to hold the line. We did it in 2018 when Trump was first in office. Back then, Sinclair Broadcast Group was attempting to buy Tribune Media. Sinclair promised Trump favorable coverage and even forced local-news anchors across many of the 185 stations it owned at the time to read pro-Trump scripts in its bid to get FCC approval for its deal. But we organized against that merger, mounting public pressure and legal arguments that Sinclair and its sympathizers couldn’t surmount. The FCC ultimately put the deal in its media-merger graveyard.

And now we’re doing it again. The lone dissenting FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez, has been a stalwart advocate for upholding the Constitution and the law. The president has already attempted to fire her contemporaries at the Federal Trade Commission and other independent agencies. Yet she continues to speak out courageously for the First Amendment.

During the meeting, she explained how the FCC operates and noted how unusual the administration’s attacks on the First Amendment have been. She also discussed her First Amendment listening tour, which is engaging people across the country about the impact of the administration’s campaign to censor and control the media.

Commissioner Gomez is seeing firsthand how this administration is using the FCC to block dissenting voices, and her proximity means she’s keenly able to diagnose the problem — including which voices it most affects. “You show your priorities by the first actions that you take,” she said during the gathering. “And I think … one of the first actions that this FCC under this administration took was a dismantling of anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Indeed, as media conglomerates continue to consolidate, we get less independent journalism, less creative expression and less diversity of viewpoints and speakers on the air. That’s by design. President Trump has made it no secret that he admires authoritarian leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who swiftly moved to consolidate Hungarian media to suppress dissent — and obscure the details of how his actions were harming the Hungarian people.

That’s what we’re up against. Yet we know that exposing the problem and trying to stop it is just the first step. “All of the experts that we’ve talked to and that we’ve had on our webinars on authoritarianism have said one thing in common — well, many things in common — but one is we can’t just be against,” Fonda said during the meeting. “We have to put out there in the ether and to the public what we’re for — what kind of future we’re fighting for. We’re not going back. Because back was really bad for a whole lot of people. We’re going forward to a better democracy, a new democracy.”

Confronting the Trump administration’s censorship regime 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a meeting with Hollywood talent if we didn’t talk about the impact of media consolidation and First Amendment attacks on content creators. The actors, writers, directors and others who are part of the Committee for the First Amendment are some of the best storytellers in the world. They’re ready and able to use their talents to protect everyone’s free speech and mobilize their fans and followers to join our fight. Just see the video Ayo Edebiri and Jane Fonda created to promote the committee’s work.

As I said on the call, storytellers help us make sense of the world around us. And if the Trump administration is going to try to influence what kinds of stories we can tell — and which ones we can’t — we’ve hit a dangerous new low in our democracy.

But we don’t have to stay there. The McCarthy era lasted for far too long, but it did end. Let’s get out of this hole as quickly as possible.  I’m confident that Free Press and our new allies at the Committee for the First Amendment can help us move forward. We’ve been at this work for decades and we won’t be silenced.

Watch the Committee for the First Amendment’s call below — and donate to Free Press to help us continue fighting to protect free speech.