Trump administration, drop the case against FL reporter who exposed Kanye's hate

Yahoo

8 hours ago

Tim Burke did what any good journalist would do. He found the truth, and he exposed it.
In 2022, Burke, a Tampa-based freelance investigative reporter, uncovered and shared unaired footage of rapper Kanye West — also known as Ye — making vile antisemitic remarks during an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. The network had cut the worst of it before airing, giving viewers a sanitized version.
Burke accessed online a version of the entire interview, revealing what they didn't want the public to see: Ye voicing hate and promoting conspiracy theories that echoed some of the worst antisemitic tropes in history.
In one of the dropped segments: Ye detailed his belief in an unfounded antisemitic conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood was founded 'to control the Jew population' which he said really meant Black Americans. In another, he said he preferred that his children knew about Hanukah more than Kwanza because 'at least it will come with some financial engineering.'
For his efforts to expose this bigotry and a network's efforts to hide it, Burke is facing prosecution.
During the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted him on 14 felony counts in the Middle District of Florida, accusing him of hacking, computer fraud, and wiretapping. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. All for exposing dangerous speech that others tried to keep hidden.
This isn't just a story about a reporter being punished for exercising his First Amendment right to tell the truth. It's also a test of whether our leaders mean what they say about fighting antisemitism.
Editorial: Now is not the time to give up on DEI
Let's be clear: Tim Burke didn't doctor anything. He didn't falsify a report. He didn't smear an innocent person. He exposed the ugly truth that was publicly accessible about a famous figure's hateful views and the media machinery that tried to hide them. That's not a crime. That's journalism.
Opinion: When extremes take over, Palm Beach County loses the fight against antisemitism
And yet, the Biden Administration's DOJ pursued this case anyway, framing it as a high-tech crime rather than what it was: public interest journalism. It's no wonder the ACLU and press freedom groups are outraged.
Prosecuting Burke sends a chilling message — not just to him, but to any journalist or whistleblower who might consider revealing uncomfortable truths in the public interest.
But the absurdity of the case has reached new heights under political leaders who now frame themselves as champions of the fight against antisemitism — including President Donald Trump.
The president and his inner circle — including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi — have made fighting antisemitism a core part of their public identity. Trump issued sweeping executive orders citing the need to protect Jewish students and root out institutional bias at universities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has gone even further, framing the fight against antisemitism as a national and foreign policy imperative, even calling for the deportation of those who spread antisemitic hate on U.S. soil.
So why is a journalist who exposed real antisemitism — words straight from the mouth of an influential American entertainer — the one being targeted by prosecutors? Why are Trump's allies silent as Burke faces 60+ years for revealing the very kind of hate they claim to oppose? Why aren't they jumping at the opportunity to drop their predecessor's misguided prosecution, pardon Burke or both?
The truth is, you can't claim to be the enemy of antisemitism and then prosecute the person who exposed it. There is no need to test out novel and dubious legal theories that the government appears to be doing on someone who performed a public service. You can't rail against cancel culture and then try to cancel a journalist through the courts.
If the goal is to root out hate and protect vulnerable communities, then you must accept that sometimes, doing so will ruffle powerful feathers. That's the price of integrity — and a consequence of the First Amendment.
Jewish groups and advocates of press freedom need to step up and demand that the administration drop this case. And if Trump and Bondi are serious about their intentions, they need to listen and abandon Burke's prosecution. Stop punishing the person who held a mirror to the system and showed us something ugly.
Show us that your principles aren't just political props. Because the fight against antisemitism must be consistent, not convenient — or it's not really a fight at all.
Bobby Block is the Executive Director of the First Amendment Foundation. Seth Stern is the Advocacy Director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. They wrote this for the USA Today Network-Florida.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Kanye's Carlson interview was antisemitic. Coverage is fair | Opinion