Then–White House press secretary Jen Psaki fired a warning shot at Elon Musk in April 2022 following reports that Musk was considering buying Twitter. Psaki “mentioned the threat to social-media companies to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, linking these threats to social-media platforms’ failure to censor misinformation and disinformation,” wrote U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in his July 2023 preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs in Murthy v. Missouri (originally filed as Missouri v. Biden).
The court case centered on the Biden administration’s demands that social media platforms censor content that did not align with the administration’s narratives regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the elections. Psaki threatened “legal consequences” such as a “robust anti-trust program” for social media platforms that didn’t toe the line. “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” she warned in a July 15, 2021, White House press conference.
In Murthy v. Missouri, Psaki was identified as one of several administration officials who insisted that the government had the right to censor speech. The Supreme Court will hear the case during the 2023–24 session.
Psaki’s personal role in threatening speech on social media platforms is why last month’s decision by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) to honor Psaki is so shocking. Psaki was named master of ceremonies of RTDNA’s grandest annual event: the First Amendment Awards ceremony to be held in Washington, D.C., on March 9.
RTDNA claims that it’s the “world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to broadcast and digital journalism.” Further, it “defends the First Amendment rights of electronic journalists.”
In a phone call, RTDNA President and CEO Dan Shelley told me that his staff thought it was important MSNBC be represented at the awards ceremony and requested the cable channel pony-up a name to be emcee. Psaki was the personality they were offered.
“You would be hard-pressed to find someone more hostile to the First Amendment than Psaki,” I told Shelley. He disagreed. “I don’t think her actions while working in the White House have any bearing on this,” he replied. “Besides,” he continued, “she hosts a show on MSNBC. Granted, it’s an opinion show, but that should count for something.”
Shelley claimed that although RTDNA (of which I am now a former member) supported the First Amendment, it was important “we work together to stop ‘disinformation’” because it is “so dangerous.” Shelley didn’t believe censoring “disinformation” was incompatible with supporting the First Amendment. “Although maybe it shouldn’t be the White House leading the effort,” he conceded.
“Doesn’t it worry you that what constitutes ‘disinformation’ may change with every administration?” I asked. I was met with silence. Significantly, Shelley’s logic doesn’t even scratch at the surface; we are learning much of what was labeled as “disinformation” by the Biden administration regarding COVID was, in fact, accurate.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose office was a lead plaintiff in Murthy v. Missouri, told me in an email statement that “[i]t’s a slap in the face to every American that [Psaki] be named as master of ceremonies at any event involving the First Amendment.” Bailey’s predecessor, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, who filed the original lawsuit, called honoring Psaki “utterly hilarious and … the epitome of hypocrisy.”
Mark Hyman is an Emmy-award-winning investigative television journalist.