In 1947, as Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy helped fuel a notorious “red scare,” the Committee for the First Amendment was formed to push back against the tide. Academy Award winner Henry Fonda, a few years after his decorated World War II military service, was among the committee’s earliest and most prominent members.
Nearly eight decades later, his daughter is helping carry a very similar torch. The Associated Press reported:
Drawing upon her personal and political past, Jane Fonda has revived an activist group from the Cold War era that was backed by her father and fellow Oscar winner, Henry Fonda. Jane Fonda announced she had launched a 21st century incarnation of the Committee for the First Amendment, originally formed in 1947 in response to Congressional hearings aimed against screenwriters and directors — notably the so-called ‘Hollywood Ten’ — and their alleged Communist ties. Signers of the new organization’s mission statement include Florence Pugh, Sean Penn, Billie Eilish, Pedro Pascal and hundreds of others.
“I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life,” Fonda wrote in a letter inviting her peers to join the re-established group. “When I feel scared, I look to history. I wish there were a secret playbook with all the answers — but there never has been. The only thing that has ever worked — time and time again — is solidarity: binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.”
Donald Trump’s White House responded in the same way it always does: by going on the offensive against a critic.
“Hanoi Jane is free to share whatever bad opinions she wants,” a White House spokesperson said. “As someone who actually knows what it’s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech and Democrat [sic] allegations to the contrary are so false, they’re laughable.”
For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that the president has never been a victim of government censorship. Let’s also brush past the absurdity of the White House’s claim that Trump is “a strong supporter of free speech” two weeks after he and his administration helped push a comedian off the air, suggested “evening shows” are “not allowed” to criticize him and argued that networks that give him “only bad publicity” risk losing their broadcast licenses.
Rather, what I’m struck by is the White House’s willingness to go after Fonda in the first place.
Ideally, an American president and his team would focus their energies on affairs of state. But in recent months, Trump and his operation have shown a disproportionate interest in targeting celebrities.
Before Fonda it was Ariana Grande. Before Grande it was Selena Gomez. Before Gomez it was Tom Hanks. In May, the president demanded investigations into Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono. A week earlier, when Trump was still in the midst of a Middle East trip, the Republican set aside some time to suggest that Taylor Swift is no longer “hot,” due entirely to his criticisms of the pop star. Soon after, the White House took aim at “South Park,” as the president continued to rail against late-night comedians. Whether Trump realizes this or not, the more he and his team try to fight celebrities, the more the White House appears small and pitiful. For all the effort Republicans invest in making the president out to be some powerful colossus, what we’re left with is a flailing man whose operation feels compelled to whine about actors, cartoons and late-night monologues.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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