The detestable abuse of power represented by the U.S. Government seeking to prosecute blog commenters for obviously hyperbolic criticism of the government was noted in this post, not that it aroused half as as much interest or comment as, say, Caitlyn Jenner’s come-hither glance on the cover of Vanity Fair. Nor did much of the blogosphere take notice, and if any national news media took heed, I missed it. For how can the Obama Administration chilling free speech and harassing a libertarian blog that frequently condemns its contempt for basic rights compete with the secret guest list of the Obama’s 500 closest friends invited to dance a night away to the music of Stevie and Prince?

Now Ken White, the libertarian lawyer/blogger/free speech warrior who honors Popehat with his wisdom has uncovered a further outrage: he believes, and has good reason to believe, that the government has slapped a gag order on Reason, thus stopping the website from alerting the public and the world regarding our government’s unethical and probably illegal conduct.

As before, let me send you to Ken, who, as always, makes his case thoroughly and hard. I will just mention before doing so, however, that nothing but an Administration, a Justice Department and a President that possess a basic lack of respect and reverence for free speech would behave this way. New Attorney General Lorretta Lynch could put a stop to Reason’s harassment with a two minute phone call, and so could the President. Don’t tell me they are consumed with other matters of weight: the Obamas have had time to trip the light fantastic with Al Sharpton, and Lynch is consumed with the idiotic chore of “investigating whether shooting nine people dead is a hate crime,” so that, what, the judge can make especially mean faces at the killer when he’s sentenced to ten consecutive life sentences?

This matters; the contempt for free speech from a regime that is already supported by censorship, indoctrination and thought-control advocates matters. Does anybody care?

Ken White does:

There is no right more important than the right to criticize and question the government. It is the right upon which all other rights rely, without which all other rights are defenseless. Its suppression here is despicable. More people should demand that the U.S. Attorney’s Office explain its extraordinary exercise of power.Will you be one of them? Will your publication be one of them? Or will you simply be next?

Read it all.

Here.

UPDATE: Reason speaks, and Ken was correct. Gag order.