A. Barton Hinkle on How Liberals Became the New Book Banners
Last week, American liberals gave Banned Books Week a lot of attention. The New York Times, for example, has run countless features on it, from "Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week" and "What Are You Doing for Banned Books Week?" to a 2009 editorial appreciation of the American Library Association's Judith Krug, who established Banned Books Week back in the '80s, "during one of the nation's periodic censorship epidemics." Yet as A. Barton Hinkle observes, the Times and its liberal readership also favor banning books. That's evident from the paper's editorial support for a constitutional amendment designed to overturn Citizens United and curtail the reach of the First Amendment.