The First Amendment is in the news, and it’s under attack. The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel is the big story right now, but there is an attack on the First Amendment right here at home that has gotten very little publicity.

Recently, First Alert Six, WOWT television filed a Freedom of Information request for documents pertaining to the Cornhusker Clink. As you know, the Work Ethic Camp in McCook is scheduled to become a regional ICE detention facility in the next month or so.

When Channel Six filed the initial request, they received a mostly redacted document that briefly talked about some of the safety issues on the site.

The reporter was persistent and was told that Pillen’s office had many more documents and would release them after they conferred with their legal department.

Then, last Monday, First Alert Six was told that the documents would not be released because the information was confidential and proprietary.

Now, remember these are government documents. It’s not like they were trying to find out the proprietary information of the eleven herbs and spices in KFC. They are trying to find out the who, what, when, and whys of McCook. This is a taxpayer-funded facility, and the taxpayers have a right to know all the details.

Governor Pillen also refused to show up in person when 13 State Senators asked him to testify about the Cornhusker Clink. He submitted written answers to questions provided by the Senators instead.

Remember, this is the same man who refused to debate his opponent in the campaign and whose people physically blocked me one time from asking him a question. Why is the governor so afraid to answer questions or be held accountable?

But this isn’t the only time Governor Pillen has refused to respond to an important statewide story. He dismissed a report in the Flatwater Free Press about the dangerously high levels of nitrates in the water supply near his hog farms in rural Nebraska. He dismissed the report because the author wasn’t born in America. He didn’t show facts to prove her report was wrong. He just figuratively shot the messenger, and the story went away, even if the high cancer risk didn’t.

Yes, the First Amendment is under attack.

President Trump has called reporters the enemy of the people. He has filed multibillion-dollar lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other news outlets. He knows he can’t win those lawsuits, but he is trying to intimidate them to stop them from publishing future stories he might not like.

Jimmy Kimmel Live was suspended indefinitely due to a joke he told after the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.

Nobody has a First Amendment right to host their own late-night talk show. But ABC didn’t suspend him because a few affiliates were upset. They suspended him after the head of the FCC threatened the network over the joke. President Trump then took to his social media platforms and cheered ABC’s capitulation and insinuated that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are next.

Comedians throughout history have always been the ones to speak truth to power.

Personally, I don’t think Trump is as upset about the MAGA reference in the joke as he was about the second half, where he showed the President was more concerned with his ballroom than he was about the death of Charlie Kirk. President Trump’s own words didn’t show him in a very good light. But Jimmy Kimmel and his staff paid the price.

Supporters of Charlie Kirk rightfully mentioned that Mr. Kirk had a First Amendment right to say the things he said. I agree and I support that right, even though I strongly disagreed with most of what he said.

Shouldn’t those supporters of Charlie Kirk’s First Amendment right be as supportive of Jimmy Kimmel’s? Where was the President’s outrage when Brian Kilmeade said on Fox and Friends that mentally unstable homeless people should be put to death? Kilmeade later apologized, but there was no punishment from Fox News or the FCC.

I guess talk like that is OK as long as you are on the administration’s side on most other issues.

Governor Pillen needs to release more information regarding the so-called Cornhusker Clink, and the White House needs to keep out of the private news business. Our Founding Fathers made the right to free speech number one for a reason. We, the people, need to keep it alive regardless of what side of the political spectrum we’re on.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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