Overview
- Jake Tapper, appearing on The Late Show on Monday, displayed and then gifted Stephen Colbert a pocket square printed with First Amendment language.
- Tapper said many reporters plan to wear similar pocket squares or pins at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner as a silent show of support for press freedom.
- He said the items came from the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, which supplies materials that quote the amendment’s protections for speech and the press.
- President Donald Trump says he will attend as the event’s honoree, and coverage notes that administration figures who have criticized mainstream outlets are expected in the room.
- Reaction broke along partisan lines, with conservative hosts and outlets calling the gesture empty virtue signaling while other coverage cast it as a pointed response that some tie to recent talk of FCC equal-time rule enforcement.