John Kerry Says Free Speech Makes the US 'Hard to Govern'
Former Secretary of State John Kerry stated that the First Amendment of the US Constitution poses a challenge to efforts aimed at fighting disinformation during a discussion at the WEF. Read Full Article at RT.com.
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**The US Constitution is a barrier to ending “disinformation,” claims former Obama administration official**
Former presidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed concerns about the impact of individual choice in information sourcing on governance effectiveness. Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel on Green Energy last week, Kerry criticized the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which safeguards freedom of speech and the press.
He highlighted that social media complicates consensus-building in democracies, stating, “It's really hard to govern today.”
Kerry emphasized the challenges posed by the evolution of information dissemination. “The referees we used to have to determine what is fact and what isn't have kind of been eviscerated,” he said, observing that individuals now have greater autonomy in choosing their news sources.
He further remarked on the difficulties this presents for combating misinformation: “If people go to only one source… and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to simply hammering it out of existence.” According to Kerry, as long as Democrats can “win ground” and “win the right to govern,” they would have the freedom to enact change.
Kerry also conveyed a critique of the effectiveness of democracies in addressing current challenges. “I think democracies are very challenged right now and have not proven they can move fast enough or big enough to address the challenges we face. To me, that is part of what this race, this election, is all about,” he added.
In a related discussion earlier this year at the WEF, Emma Tucker, Editor in Chief of the Wall Street Journal, expressed regret over the decline of corporate media's control over information. “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well,” she stated, acknowledging that consumers now have access to a wider range of sources.
Amid a backdrop of increasingly polarized election discourse, studies indicate a decline in public trust in the media. Research conducted by the think tank Populace, in collaboration with Gradient and YouGov, found that while 24 percent of Americans claim to trust the media to tell the truth, only 7 percent hold that belief privately.
Frederick R Cook for TROIB News
Former presidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed concerns about the impact of individual choice in information sourcing on governance effectiveness. Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel on Green Energy last week, Kerry criticized the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which safeguards freedom of speech and the press.
He highlighted that social media complicates consensus-building in democracies, stating, “It's really hard to govern today.”
Kerry emphasized the challenges posed by the evolution of information dissemination. “The referees we used to have to determine what is fact and what isn't have kind of been eviscerated,” he said, observing that individuals now have greater autonomy in choosing their news sources.
He further remarked on the difficulties this presents for combating misinformation: “If people go to only one source… and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to simply hammering it out of existence.” According to Kerry, as long as Democrats can “win ground” and “win the right to govern,” they would have the freedom to enact change.
Kerry also conveyed a critique of the effectiveness of democracies in addressing current challenges. “I think democracies are very challenged right now and have not proven they can move fast enough or big enough to address the challenges we face. To me, that is part of what this race, this election, is all about,” he added.
In a related discussion earlier this year at the WEF, Emma Tucker, Editor in Chief of the Wall Street Journal, expressed regret over the decline of corporate media's control over information. “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well,” she stated, acknowledging that consumers now have access to a wider range of sources.
Amid a backdrop of increasingly polarized election discourse, studies indicate a decline in public trust in the media. Research conducted by the think tank Populace, in collaboration with Gradient and YouGov, found that while 24 percent of Americans claim to trust the media to tell the truth, only 7 percent hold that belief privately.
Frederick R Cook for TROIB News
