The Republican Party is losing every ounce of self respect it might possibly have left. They just tried to buy a commercial spot on CNN in which they used the term "fake news" to refer to mainstream media. CNN called them out for it, saying that they will not run the ad unless that false information is removed. The GOP cried foul and claimed, get this, that their First Amendment right to free speech was violated.
First, a commercial is not protected speech. It's a business agreement to pay money to broadcast a message, and the network has every right to refuse to air content which they consider inappropriate. A message containing a slanderous lie about the network itself would certainly fit that description.
Second, trying to discredit the free press by lying to the public is vile and reprehensible, something that dictators do. Mainstream media in the US is definitely not "fake news". This is not something that is under dispute. Scholars and analysts agree that Donald Trump and his Republican pundits use the label as a derogatory slur, and anyone with a functioning brain and honest intentions would agree.
There is a word to describe the GOP quoting the First Amendment to defend their efforts to render that amendment ineffective. That word is "evil".
