Is Charleston Shooting A Trojan Horse For Internet Censorship?

In a democratic system where political leaders are purportedly responsive to public opinion a pretext must be presented in order to introduce policies that are seen by the majority as controversial or undesirable. News coverage of the Charleston Church shooting over the past several days suggests how a storyline is being shaped by corporate news media and political leaders to lay the groundwork for intensified government regulation of online speech.

On February 26, 2015 the Federal Communications Commission passed a substantial policy document increasing its authority over the web. Such control could potentially be imposed to circumvent First Amendment protections of free speech by targeting websites based on their political perspectives and content.

The Charleston shooting narrative now being drummed in to the public mind maintains that Dylann Roof carried out his heinous act after having been “radicalized” by reading conservative “right wing” political websites. He consequently became filled with “hate” and morphed into a sinister “lone wolf terrorist.”

As ABC News reports:

Investigators believe that the man accused of fatally shooting nine people in a historic Charleston church last week was “self-radicalized,” … meaning that he was not believed to be part of a hate group, and acted alone as well.

That hasn’t stopped investigators from serving subpoenas to internet and telecommunications companies. In doing so, it will allow investigators to recreate the 21-year-old’s entire digital footprint.

Much as the Sandy Hook massacre scenario emphasized Adam Lanza’s wayward parenting and learning disabilities to sell the American public on mandatory mental health screenings for school children, so the antagonist of the Charleston church shooting is plagued by exposure to “radicalizing” content via the internet.

CNN, the UK Guardian and the New York Daily News appear to be the foremost media outlets shaping the Dylann Roof infected by “hate” meme initially preferred by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A cursory LexisNexis search for “‘Dylann Roof’ and hate” for the dates June 17 to June 21 yields 320 print articles and 197 broadcast transcripts since June 17.

Guardian — 25
NY Daily News — 21
LA Times — 12
McClatchy — 12
Wash Post — 12
NY Times — 9
USA Today — 4
NY Post — 4
Phil Inquirer — 4

CNN — 68
FoxNews — 13
MSNBC — 12
CBS New — 9
Canadian TV — 8
NPR — 8
NBC News — 5
ABC News 3

Another search for “‘Dylann Roof’ and terrorism OR terrorist” reveals many of the same venues emphasizing this theme, with 124 print article and 96 transcripts.

Guardian — 15
NY Daily News — 4
NY Times — 4
LA Times — 3
McClatchy Tribune — 3
Atlant Journ Const — 3
Wash Post — 2

CNN — 53
MSNBC — 12
FoxNews — 9
CBS New — 4
Canadian TV — 2
NPR — 1
NBC News — 0
ABC News 0

True to form, even before funeral arrangements could be made for the slain, the Obama administration and its allies had begun waving the bloody shirt for gun control. It may soon be doing so to impose fines on or outright censor websites that may “radicalize” impressionable minds in order to save us from ourselves.  The exercise of prior restraint of expression against any party regardless of their espoused and articulated views is fundamentally unconstitutional and antithetical to America’s core values.

Among other freedoms slowly but surely taken away since September 11, 2001, online speech and a free internet are in jeopardy as never before, to a significant degree because particularly in times of crisis much of the US public are too quick to allow the major corporate media and punditocracy to do their thinking for them.

Professor James F. Tracy is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Florida Atlantic University. James Tracy’s work on media history, politics and culture has appeared in a wide variety of academic journals, edited volumes, and alternative news and opinion outlets. James is editor of Union for Democratic Communication’s Journal Democratic Communiqué and a contributor to Project Censored’s forthcoming publication Censored 2013: The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2011-2012. Additional writings and information are accessible at memoryholeblog.com.