Reading Between the Lines of Fire and Fury

By: Rebecca Slocum

In a year where the United States has seen ever increasing challenges to the First Subpoena, nosotros can now add 1 more: President Donald Trump's attempt to halt the publication of the new tell-all book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. Six days before its original publication appointment of Jan 9^th, a lawyer representing the president sent a end-and-desist letter to the publisher, Henry Holt & Co., demanding they cease publication of the book. Rather than capitulate to Trump's demands, they instead moved up the publication date to Jan 5^th.

The terminate-and-desist letter of the alphabet threatened legal action if the book was distributed, citing defamation of character and invasion of privacy nether New York constabulary. Trump himself tweeted that the book was "phony," defective credible sources and misrepresenting the truth.

Fire and Fury certainly does pigment a rather unflattering movie of the Trump Administration. However, that moving picture is no more unflattering than the various portraits created past the press throughout Trump's first year in office. And while information technology is true that Wolff's reporting has been questioned before, the letter of the alphabet from Trump's attorney does not call out any specific information, state of affairs, or fact in the volume as libelous or fake. If there is nothing that the president can cite equally being inaccurate or defamatory (which, since he likely has non read it, is certainly hard), and then it leads me to believe that he simply does not like information technology.

Permit me repeat that. Trump attempted to halt the publication of a book about him just because he didn't like it. That, my friends, is censorship. It is a violation of the Outset Amendment. And information technology is unconstitutional.

The very basis of our constitution is the ability to say, write, read, and worship as nosotros delight without the threat of regime interference. Our Constitution begins with "We, the people." We, the people, are free to challenge our authorities leaders through the written and spoken word. Nosotros, the people, are free to assemble together to address and demand changes to our lodge. And nosotros, the people, are gratis to access and receive this data regarding our authorities and its leaders and course our ain understandings and ideas.

That includes a book that criticizes our nation's commander-in-master.

At present while the First Amendment protects our correct to liberty of speech, it does not protect against defamation and libel. Without getting into an intense legal word, libel is knowingly printing a false argument that amercement a person's reputation. Then if the president follows through with his threat for legal action against Wolff and his publisher, he will accept to cite specific information in the volume and evidence that information technology is, in fact, inaccurate or false. What is alarming here, though, is Trump's attempt to stop the book earlier it is published. It is hard to sue someone for libel when their work is yet to be published and distributed. That is called prior restraint, and the Supreme Courtroom set a precedent against information technology in the landmark 1931 Near v. Minnesota case.

Had Trump waited for Burn and Fury to exist published and and then sued Wolff for libel with citation of specific untruths and proof of their inaccuracy, he likely would have experienced a much dissimilar situation than the one he created. Instead, his attempt at prior restraint catapulted Burn and Fury to best seller status. On publication twenty-four hour period, readers flocked to local bookstores, national booksellers, and the internet to buy the book. Many booksellers are in fact sold out of print copies. It currently sits at the top of Amazon'southward bestseller list, with the Kindle and audiobook version non far behind. Libraries take hold lists of over a hundred.

I think it is safe to say that Americans do not have threats of censorship lightly.

Equally librarians, we encourage patrons and students to seek out and read banned books. It is of import to understand why a certain thought or story is being challenged. Whether we agree or disagree with the content presented, it is the right of the people to discern that for themselves. Burn and Fury is no exception. So gild a print copy. Download an e-volume. Listen to the audiobook. Or, if you lot don't desire to spend your volume dollars right now, become on that library hold list (I'1000 currently number 136). Let's testify the president that we're willing to fight for our constitutional right to freedom of speech. Permit's prove him that we resist censorship in all its forms. Allow'southward bear witness him we support intellectual liberty.

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Rebecca Slocum has worked in education equally a teacher and library consultant for the concluding five years and is a recent MLIS graduate student from the University of North Texas. She is interested in bug involving intellectual liberty, censorship, and collection development in school libraries. In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys reading, writing, running, and roaming the globe. Currently, she stays at habitation caring for her son and writes at her blog, The Dewey Decimator. Discover her on Twitter @bcslocum.

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Source: https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=12324

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