Have we gotten to the point that it’s politically necessary to defend the principle of free speech? Apparently so.

Consider the reaction of journalists — people who, more than anyone else in our society, have a professional and economic interest in free speech — to Lousiana-based federal judge Terry Doughty’s July 4 decision on a motion to bar agencies of the federal government from pressuring social media outlets to suppress information the agencies deem “misinformation.”