This is the Jocco Unraveling Podcast number 37 sitting here with Derral Cooper and me,

Jocco Willink.

In 1798, the Federalist Party passed the Alien and Sedition Acts that were meant to weaken

the press and outlawed any false scandalous or malicious writing against the government.

That's 1798.

That's the Federalist Party.

In 1861, the government identified and shut down newspapers that supported the Confederate

cause.

William Randolph Hearst, he exaggerated, he sensationalized.

He flat out falsified some stories about the sinking of the USS Maine, which he did primarily

to sell newspapers, claiming that the ship was sunk by a mine.

The USS Maine was more likely sunk by an explosion that was ignited by a fire in the coal

bunker, killed 268 sailors, but the newspapers ran the story that it was sunk by a mine,

certainly added fuel to the Spanish-American war.

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to convey information with intent to interfere

with military operational or successes or promote enemy success, or convey false reports

that attempted to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, or obstruct

recruiting.

It also gave the Postmaster General the authority to impound anything that he deemed to violate

these prohibitions.

That's the Postmaster General.

General could just take whatever you were mailing out and say, no, it doesn't follow the rules.

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