The GOP's 'Free Speech' Facade: What NYT's Jeremy Peters Gets Wrong
Today, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters published a piece titled “How the G.O.P. Went From Championing Campus Free Speech to Fighting It,” looking at what he frames as a shift in Republican attitudes toward free expression at universities. But like so many mainstream media analyses of conservative positions, Peters’ article fails to acknowledge the most obvious explanation: Republicans were never actually champions of campus free speech in the first place.
The headline itself should include scare quotes around “championing” — because what we’re seeing now isn’t a reversal of principles but rather the logical conclusion of a long-running strategy to control the terms of acceptable discourse.
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Republicans have long claimed to defend “free speech” on campus, but only when it suited their political purposes. They weren’t defending a principle — they were weaponizing a concept. It’s the same playbook they’ve used with “cancel culture” — a term they’ve weaponized despite being its primary practitioners for decades.
As I wrote back in 2021, the right has been built on cancel culture for decades — from Roger Ailes to Andrew Breitbart to Donald Trump. They’ve waged campaigns to get people fired, shows canceled, and products boycotted. Yet they act as if “cancel culture” is a uniquely left-wing phenomenon, a fiction Peters unfortunately seems to accept.
The most glaring recent example is the Trump administration’s actions against Columbia University. Just this month, the administration announced $400 million in cuts to the university over pro-Palestinian protests. While claiming to defend Jewish students, this move is fundamentally about punishing speech the administration finds objectionable.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Since retaking office, Trump has repeatedly threatened academic institutions with funding cuts if they don’t crack down on certain forms of protest or expression. Meanwhile, his administration has pursued an aggressive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on campuses. In November, Trump’s team asked conservative activist Christopher Rufo to develop a plan to tie federal funding to the elimination of DEI programs at universities.
Related Knowledge Center: Free speech and public protest
The First Amendment is facing challenging times: Crackdowns on campus protests prompted both-sides claims of intolerance. Attempts to head off dangerous health misinformation have been characterized as violations of free speech. Donald Trump is publicly punishing news outlets that deviate from his administration’s version of events while privately suing some outlets into submission.
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Related Knowledge Center: The Times and its critics
The New York Times is the most important — and successful — news organization in the United States, with unmatched resources. But its political coverage has its critics, including a growing number of veteran journalists.