In This Moment: A Rabbi's Notebook
Thank God our judiciary is holding up its end in preserving democracy in America.
As reported in the USA Today, A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration in a case centered on the limits of a protest group’s signs in Washington, DC.
Judge Randolph D. Moss’ June 29 order declared that Accountability NOW USA’s signage referencing sexual misconduct allegations against Trump was not legally obscene and that its “8647” flag did not constitute a true threat to Trump or incitement of violence, conditions which would have allowed the government to restrict such messaging without violating the First Amendment.
Judge Moss indicated that the group was free to fly the flag in Washington because the expression “86” is “a slang term with no single meaning.” Though he said there is “understandable vigilance” in protecting the president, Moss determined that “no reasonable person, aware of the relevant circumstances,” would interpret the group’s flag as a threat on Trump’s life.
That decision was spot-on, as were the related decisions throwing out the James Comey “He-spelled-sea-shells-8647-on-the-sea-shore” case.
I was just on Cape Cod for a few thoroughly enjoyable days, performing a wedding (I’m available for destination weddings!) and was able to manage to escape the worries of the world, that is until the Canadian wildfire haze slinked southward and covered our lovely blue sky, and then some Nantucket Sound mollusks decided to commit hara-kiri and wash themselves up on the shore of my happy beach in Harwich Port in this astounding formation:
So the question now is whether I am risking arrest with this impudent and obviously artificially-generated poke.
I shouldn’t be, but this is an administration that served subpoenas to New York Times reporters at their homes in the middle of the night because they dared to reveal information about security deficiencies of the president’s new vanity plane - information that protected the president. This is an administration that attacks The View and tries to revive the Red Scare when no commies can be found on these shores.
Oh, wait…
Those shells are nasty. They’re pro-Antifa too, I hear.
But there is one form of free speech that is not granted protection by our Constitution. We do not have a right to shout fire in a crowded theater.1 And that is precisely what Donald Trump is planning to do this evening - aided and abetted by the very news media sworn to protect our rights.
I implore the networks not to cover tonight’s speech live. I’m not the first to say this. Jim Acosta stated it passionately yesterday:
We have a choice in this country, the networks have a choice in the country, and they should absolutely, positively not air this madman on Thursday night. We should not be subjected to (his lies). And people who are impressionable and listen to stuff and say, oh, well, Trump said it, so it must be, that should not happen. And the broadcasters and the news networks need to exercise, please, dear God, some responsibility and courage in this moment. Do not let him air a bunch of stupid, crazy lies on national television!
Trump knows that what he’s about to say is a bunch of lies - he’s admitted it before.2 He is clearly trying to ramp up paranoia and confusion as a last-resort attempt to muddy the waters before the midterms. It’s the oldest trick in the book, one he has tried again and again. Yet like Charlie Brown with the football, the networks keep falling for it. In the process he will defame numerous honest bystanders, like Georgia’s two Democratic senators, 2020 Republican state office holders and honest poll-workers who stood behind the 2020 electoral process. He’s already ruined the lives of innocent election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss once before (which they recovered from monetarily through subsequent litigation). Networks, do you want to be complicit in putting innocent people through that again?
This is all a textbook case of shouting fire in a crowded theater.
Per Wikipedia:
"Shouting fire in a crowded theater" is a popular analogy for speech or actions whose principal purpose is to create panic.
There it is. Yet this speech is being treated in some places as a major turning point that can’t be missed. The very same USA Today that exposed the sea shell scam seems primed to promote this prime time fiasco.
“Watch the speech live” it says? We would say that in normal times when the president gives a prime time speech on a topic of real urgency, like, say, when he’s about to start a forever war in the Middle East. These are not normal times. Trump preys on those who pretend that norms still exist, when Trump himself wouldn’t recognize a norm if he bumped into one at Cheers. And we know that tonight’s address will not only contain falsehoods - every Trumpian utterance does that.
It will contain incendiary falsehoods.
If he’s playing with fire, we are not obligated to hand him the matches.
In any event, most people do not get their news in real time these days. Anyone can watch the address on YouTube or other social media, including responsible outlets that will provide context and expose the lies as they are uttered.
Flaming falsehoods are less inflammable when sane analysts have time to follow Smokey’s five rules3.
Only you can prevent wildfires. That means you, network execs! …And you too, Canada.
Always be careful with fire. Never give a flaming liar unlimited airtime during election season.
Never play with matches or lighters. When someone is a flaming liar don’t fiddle while Rome burns. Ask follow-up questions - don’t let up. And when he calls you Piggy, don’t back down!
Always watch your campfire. He’s going to try to set the whole forest ablaze by fanning the flames and dividing the kindling against itself. He loves to see Democratic trees setting each other ablaze and doing his work for him. Don’t fall for it.
Make sure your campfire is completely out before leaving it. See Jon Ossoff’s grilling of Jay Clayton yesterday4 for an example of how to pursue justice relentlessly. Stomp out the lie itself and then throw the liar’s dirt back in his face.
As of noon on Thursday, even CNN’s media guru Brian Stelter was not sure who will be covering the speech live, even his own network.5 That in itself is encouraging.
If CNN wants to prove that it intends to maintain a shred of their integrity when the Paramount sale comes through (presumably very soon), they will, at the very least, cut away from the speech as the whoppers are pronounced or provide clarifying chyrons in real time. But if ever a speech deserved not to be covered live, tonight’s is it.
NOTES
Interestingly, there is a Jewish connection to the origins of that expression. (Isn’t there always?) From the Forward:
(JTA) — Former President Trump’s impeachment defense team intends to argue that his infamous Jan. 6 speech, in which he exhorted his followers to “fight like hell” and march “to the Capitol,” was permitted by his First Amendment rights to free speech. Political opponents are already calling reference to the well-known Supreme Court decision (Schenck v. United States, 1919) that limits free speech to exclude harmful expressions — such as, most famously, falsely yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater.
The phrase is not theoretical: It was drawn from a tragedy that occurred on a cold night in January 1887 at the Hebrew Dramatic Club of London and took the lives of 17 people.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Supreme Court justice and noted theater fan who frequently traveled to London for the season (sometimes even publishing his impressions in The New York Times), precisely recorded the events of that night in his memorable phrase. To be sure, other fatal stampedes had occurred closer to home, including at a church in 1902 and a Christmas party in 1913. But it was the Hebrew Dramatic Club incident that found expression in Holmes’ decision and subsequently in popular American discourse.
The legal basis for the performance was somewhat sketchy: Theatrical performances in London required a permit, hence the official designation of the Yiddish theater as a “club.” (Two years later, the owner would be fined 36 pounds, plus an additional 3 for court costs, for failing to procure one, and also for selling “spirituous liquors” on the premises.) According to contemporary reports, some 500 people paid a shilling and packed the theater, which apparently had a capacity of 300, to see Jacob Adler, the famous Odessa-born heartthrob, perform in “Der Spanisher Tsigayner” (“The Spanish Gypsy”).
The circumstances of the accident are not clear. In his memoirs, Adler asserts that the shout of “fire!” came from an audience member who confused a stage fire with a real threat. A major investigative report in Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper suggests that someone in the theater accidentally broke a gas line. Although the flow of combustible material was quickly stanched with a handkerchief, the distinct smell filled the crowded chamber, prompting a stagehand to quickly shut off the gas line, engulfing the chamber in darkness. It was at this point that someone falsely shouted “fire,” perhaps fearing an explosion.
Smokey’s rules:
Ossoff:
Per Stelter:
