Historically aggressive free speech groups have been silent since a recent appeal to the Department of Justice to track and potentially prosecute reporters who expose questionable medical treatments performed on minors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he “investigate and prosecute” journalists and activists for exposing and often simply re-posting publicly available information about controversial and irreversible treatments provided to minors.
“The DOJ is not allowed to target journalists for exposing the Biden Administration’s radical transgender agenda because the DOJ is not allowed to operate as a political police force for Joe Biden,” Illinois Representative Mary Miller wrote on Twitter after the letter. “Oversight is coming!”
Christopher Rufo, an investigative journalist who has reported on transgender issues, said the left made a “strategic mistake in calling for the DOJ to prosecute journalists who oppose radical gender surgeries for minors.”
“Conservatives should frame this as government suppression,” Rufo said on Twitter.
The Left has made a strategic mistake in calling for the DOJ to prosecute journalists who oppose radical gender surgeries for minors. Conservatives should frame this as government suppression and focus the debate on the facts and images, which are horrific—and make a 70/30 issue.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 3, 2022
Despite being vocal during the Trump years about the previous president’s many criticisms of the press, multiple free speech organizations refused to respond to several emails asking for comment on these efforts from the DOJ. Several of these organizations have criticized even Democrat administrations for intimidating journalists. The ACLU, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Freedom Forum Institute criticized the Obama administration’s DOJ for spying on Fox News journalist James Rosen in 2010.
Trump’s threat to revise libel laws drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who called the threat “not credible.” In 2017, Brian Tashman, a senior campaign strategist at the ACLU wrote that “Trump has made it very clear that he doesn’t stand for the freedom of the press.” (RELATED: REPORT: Gay Rights Activist Fred Sargeant Assaulted At Vermont Pride Parade For Holding Sign Critical Of Trans Agenda)
The ACLU did not, however, respond to the Daily Caller’s multiple requests for comment on the attempt by medical organizations to weaponize the DOJ against journalists and activists that report on sex change surgery for minors at children’s hospitals.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), whose stated mission is to “promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms,” also criticized Trump for allegedly trying to “intimidate” the media during his presidency in a joint statement with several other organizations in 2018. (RELATED: Children’s Hospital Employee Admits Facility Performs Child Sex Change Surgeries: REPORT)
The NCAC also refused multiple Daily Caller requests for comment on whether they oppose the letter by medical organizations to the DOJ calling for them to enforce censorship of conservative journalists.
BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY – JULY 07: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The Committee to Protect Journalists blasted Trump for “hostility toward the press” in April 2020, and the Freedom Forum Institute criticized Trump’s “fanatical claims about the patriotism of journalists” in 2018. The organization Free Press wrote in 2020 that “we’ve seen the Trump administration sink further into authoritarianism.” Reporters without Borders wrote in 2017 that, “Donald Trump has not let a week go by without meddling in the decisions of the US media.”
Neither the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom Forum Institute, Free Press, nor Reporters without Borders responded to multiple requests from the Caller asking to comment on the letter.
Journalists targeted by the letter have vowed to continue exposing hospitals which perform sex change surgeries on minors despite threats from the medical establishment.
“There is nothing they can threaten that would make me back down from this fight. I’d rather be dead than surrender to this madness. It’s as simple as that for me,” the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, who exposed Vanderbilt University’s gender clinic, said on Twitter.
I believe that gender ideology is one of the greatest evils in human history. There is nothing they can threaten that would make me back down from this fight. I’d rather be dead than surrender to this madness. It’s as simple as that for me.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 3, 2022