Eugene Volokh has the details on this, and others' statements. Anthea Butler is a professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a contributor to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and CBC. In a series of tweets she called for the imprisonment of Sam Bacile, the idiot who made this terrible and horrible "film" "about" Islam. (All in all, this incident might be a net positive for Bacile. After all, I keep seeing references to him as a "filmmaker," a title he clearly does not deserve.)
But back to Butler. Her comments were inane, and her desire for Bacile to go to jail is clearly antithetical to one of the most important American values. And, of course, the internet exploded in anger at her. So what did she do?
She doubled down.
In her USA Today column, she says things like:
Case in point: Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones on Wednesday to ask him to stop promoting Bacile's film. Clearly, the military considers the film a serious threat to national security. If the military takes it seriously, there should be consequences for putting American lives at risk.Really? The line we're going to draw in the sand, the point at which we say "the First Amendment ends here," is 'whatever the military takes seriously'?
The military takes lots of things seriously because they might put American lives at risk. For instance, the release of the Pentagon Papers, which revealed just how badly the Vietnam War was going. Or Julian Assange's release of American diplomatic cables and other sensitive information. Or maybe we should go back further, to the Alien and Sedition Acts (later denounced by Congress) which criminalized speech on the theory that it would undermine the American war effort in the early years of this country.
The military is concerned! American lives are at risk! Down with the First Amendment!
Professor Butler needs to get her head back on straight.
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