The White House, Washington, D. C. Woof Blister reporting for The Spoof. This reporter was charged today with violation of the Sedition Act, a law passed in the administration of John Adams over 200 years ago. I was arrested and booked, then bailed out of federal jail by the publisher of this online news publication.
Under terms of the act, it is a federal crime to write, print, utter or publish anything critical of the president. None of the comments that I wrote were in fact mine, but since I wrote the articles in which the criticism of President Trump was made on The Spoof, that was enough to warrant my arrest, according to the FBI, which apprehended me.
At my bail hearing, I protested that the act had expired in 1801, but the Justice Department lawyers argued, successfully, that the law had never been repealed, just ignored, for two centuries. The federal judge, a Trump appointee, agreed, and upheld the charge. The Supreme Court is expected to do so as well, by a 6-3 margin. No trial date has been set.
My arrest has sent shockwaves through the ranks of America's journalists. If I can be charged, so can the publisher of The Spoof, and the editors who posted my reports criticizing the President. Submissions to The Spoof have dwindled, as contributors are fearful of what the feds might do to them. Should Trump win re-election, news reports, both in print and on air, will be carefully screened by editors before being printed or aired. The Spoof plans to move its headquarters to Montreal to escape prosecution.
In the next few days, before the election, don't expect to read or hear any criticism of this administration's handling of the pandemic. Some outlets have already stopped reporting pandemic statistics, such as deaths.
Several Spoof writers have already fled to Canada.
