Peddling the dishonest narrative that Dobbs outlawed abortion

Astonishing call for censorship of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by publishing industry figures

By Thomas Lifson

Even as they claim to oppose censorship, a group of almost 500 people (as of the moment) from the literary world — best-selling authors, publishing industry employees, and others — have signed on to a call for Penguin Random House to drop a forthcoming book by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.  Her crime?  Signing on to the majority opinion in the Dobbs case, overturning Roe v. Wade, and returning abortion  to the states.

You can read the letter and the complete list of signatories, posted to Google Documents, here.  It begins:

"Now there will be those who will argue that this could all too easily drift into a form of censorship, albeit self-censorship, but I don't buy that argument. It has to be possible to balance freedom of expression with wider moral and social responsibilities."

 — David Puttnam, "Does the media have a duty of care?" (TED Talk)

As members of the writing, publishing, and broader literary community of the United States, we care deeply about freedom of speech. We also believe it is imperative that publishers uphold their dedication to freedom of speech with a duty of care.

We recognize that harm is done to a democracy not only in the form of censorship, but also in the form of assault on inalienable human rights. As such, we are calling on Penguin Random House to recognize its own history and corporate responsibility commitments by reevaluating its decision to move forward with publishing Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett's forthcoming book.

Does none of these people, presumably skilled in the use of the English language, see the contradiction here?  They hate censorship, but they want Justice Barrett's book suppressed, dropped by one of the biggest publishers in the country.  The very next paragraph says why they want her censored, even though censorship harms democracy: