The media went into a frenzy this weekend when the bonny Prince Harry gave a huge Hurrumpf to the First Amendment. On a show appropriately called “the Armchair Expert,” Harry declared the First Amendment “bonkers” and expressed frustration of how it protects the media in its “feeding frenzy” over his life. Harry’s criticism of the First Amendment can be dismissed as the unfamiliarity of a royal refugee. However, it is actually far more serious than that. Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle have attacked media rights in England and succeeded under the laws of the United Kingdom. They are now joining a growing anti-free speech and free press movement in the United States.
It was a surprise for many to hear Harry lash out at the First Amendment. After all, Harry and Meghan are so woke, they are virtual insomniacs. However, that is the point. The First Amendment no longer holds the inviolate position it once did with the left. Indeed, the First Amendment is now often treated as a danger than a guarantee to a fair and just society. Experts have explained how to evade its limitations to silence others. They have found precisely what Harry discussed in the interview when he noted “you can find a loophole in anything.”
Democratic leaders now openly call for corporate censorship and banning of books and authors. Academics now join in the cancelling of colleagues who express dissenting views of subjects ranging from climate change to gender identification to racial justice. Thus, it is not as risky for the Harry to declare “I’ve got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers.” Rather, millions are likely to wait in rapt anticipation to hear more of what Prince Harry will say about correcting our Constitution.
What is missing in the coverage of this controversy is a far more serious context to Harry offering his “armchair expertise.” The United Kingdom has a strikingly different approach to free speech and particularly to press freedom. The British media are subject to harsh laws giving the government far greater powers to control or punish publications. Fortunately, the government has been largely benign in the use of such laws but there are far greater restrictions placed on British media than their American cousins. (For full disclosure, I was until a few months ago a legal analyst for the BBC).
I don't really get how you come to this country with all the benefits anyone could dream of -- most immigrants to the US do not have access to the media or millions of dollars -- and you then go on to insult? Bonkers? Harry is bonkers for not grasping that a revolution was fought to free this country from England. If he prefers the British laws, he should go back to England. While he's in this country, he might try working on fitting in and not hectoring and complaining? Why isn't he in Canada, by the way? They're still under England and he'd probably be much happier there.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, May 17, 2021. Protests erupt around the world.
Over the weekend, protests and demonstrations took place around the world to show support for the Palestinians. For example, Scotland:
Chicago:
Paris:
London:
Houston:
Berlin:
Los Angeles:
DC:
Qatar:
Tokyo:
Sydney:
Amersterdam:
Ethiopia:
Dallas:
Doha:
Jordan:
Massive protests in Jordanian capital in support of Palestine
And many other places around the world including Baghdad:
Why so many protests? Why such massiver turnout at the various protests?
Because this is an issue that can no longer be ignored. By the time former US President Jimmy Carter was referring to Israel as an apartheid state, people should have been paying attention in the US. By the time the US was carrying out two forever wars -- Iraq and Afghanistan -- people should have been paying attention. Many have worked for decades to raise attention on the plight of the Palestinians. Their work is the bedrock for what's going on right now and the ongoing wars helped fuel awareness over the last years. The movement the US government could not see coming was always going to rise. It' shame that so much money is wasted on 'intelligence' -- so much US taxpayer money -- when there is none in the government.
Another thing to note about the above? Moqtada al-Sdr had nothing to do with London, Sydney, etc. And no one is rushing, in those cities, to credit one person.
But with the Baghdad protest?
It's all Moqtada's effort, we are told. What a lie.
First off, it was a popular protest around the world. Second, Moqtada wasn't the only voice calling for protests as MEHR NEWS AGENCY notes:
In an exclusive interview with Mehr News Agency (MNA) Nasr al-Shammari, the deputy secretary-general and the spokesman of Iraq's Al-Nujaba Islamic Resistance Movement said that the Islamic Resistance of Iraq will spare no effort in defending their brothers in the Palestinian resistance and the dear Palestinian people based on their religious and moral duties.
Shammari added that the Iraqi resistance is ready to support the Palestinian resistance in the form of weapons supplies and the transfer of experience or in the form of direct participation in the fight against the usurping regime of Israel.
The missile power of the Palestinian resistance pushed ahead of the struggle against the Zionist regime into a new stage, according to the Nujaba deputy secretary-general, adding that now a new balance of power has been formed.
He added that the resistance now has the upper hand in the struggle and has achieved new deterrence, rendering the Zionist regime to think twice before taking action.
He also touched upon the unity among all resistance forces across the region based on their shared Islamic beliefs, explaining that all the resistance groups in different parts of the region have formed a united front against the Israeli regime and in support of the Palestinian forces.
Crediting the protests to Moaqtada? That's garbage journalism. That's taking the work of thousands and reducing it to one person. It's celebrity feature writing, not news. It obscures reality and leaves readers and viewers with the wrong perceptions.
The turnout in Baghdad was going to be intense (and was throughout Iraq). Al that was needed was for a date and time to be announced.
Sunday brought more COVID deaths including Nadia al-Iraqiya.
ALSUMARIA notes the passing here. ALMADA notes she began her career at the age of 16, working for IRAQI RADIO.
Moving on to other issues, e-mails are asking about Ava and my latest piece? We wrote it. It took five hours to write. We finished it at 9:00 am Sunday morning. THIRD's not finished the rest of the stuff, but we wrote our piece -- we also did an interview with Ty for this edition. (About KINDLE.) I have no idea what the status is on the rest. If it's not up by Monday night, I'm posting what is done Tuesday morning.
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