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From Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is now and then.

I'm Heather Cox Richardson. And I'm Joanne Freeman. Today we are launching the second episode in a three-part series that is going to be talking about free speech.

Last week, we talked about ways in which the government has clamped down on free speech and why that matters.

Today, we're going to be talking about the vital importance of a free press for democracy and generally speaking for a healthy working republic.

Now, it was not hard last week and it's once again not hard this week to talk about things that are happening around us that in one way or another keep touching on this question of free speech.

And in the case of this week, even on the question of why a free press is important, a striking one that happened just recently took place a couple of days ago at a venue in the Philadelphia suburb of war minister.

And it was a big pre primary rally by the Republican party's gubernatorial frontrunner, state senator Doug Mastriano. And what was discovered and will bunch from the Philadelphia inquirer wrote a piece on it is that they were not letting the press in to that rally.

And not only that, but there was someone dressed as one of my guys, a sort of continental era revolutionary guy in a three corner hat blocking the press from entering the rally, which we're going to come back to this in a moment.

I can name you a good number of founders that would not be happy with that particular guy in a tricorner had blocking the press out of a rally. But regardless, we're at a moment where the free press for a while for several years has been under attack.

But now in a sense that kind of attack is being more maybe not quite institutionalized but adopted.

And at the same time in contrast to that on her last day at the White House White House press secretary Jen Socky said, I want to thank all of you in this room.

You have challenged me you have pushed me you have debated me and at times we have disagreed that is democracy and action that is it working without accountability without debate government is not as strong.

...