“This is a textbook example of “jawboning”—when the government tries to accomplish some censorship by threatening improper government action. It is exactly the sort of thing that conservatives rightly hated about the previous administration: President Joe Biden, his senior advisers, and various federal employees browbeat social media companies into taking down content that the feds deemed wrong, hateful, or dangerous. They didn’t just say that they disagreed with major platform moderation policies: They raised the possibility of punitive legislation against Facebook, Google, and Twitter unless they complied.
Leavitt is free to complain about Moran’s comment, as Vance did. But her insinuation that she would be speaking with Moran’s manager reads like a threat, and thus like an attempt at censorship. As Jenin Younes, a civil liberties attorney, noted in a reply to Leavitt, the Trump administration issued an executive order to prevent the kind of jawboning that took place under the previous White House. To turn around and do the same thing is obviously hypocritical.
“Journalists and everyone else can say what they want about members of the Administration (and anything else) without having to fear reprisal from the government,” wrote Younes. “You should delete this tweet and apologize for your attempted act of tyranny and also failure to understand basic constitutional concepts.”
As for Moran’s post: It probably was unwise for a straight news reporter to share his spicy speculations about Miller’s motivations. Mainstream media organizations have different rules for news reporters and opinion commentators, and it’s possible that Moran violated his company’s social media policy. He has a First Amendment right vis a vis the U.S. government, not with respect to ABC.”