[Nasrudith]

You might need a refresher of US history. It can and has been abused in the past and only through fighting back hard have we gotten the status quo of today.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

If the spooks of weren't so damn aggeessive that they spoiled a can't lose trial Ellswood would have been fucked for the Pentagon Papers as there is no public interest defense against the Espionage Act.

To be frank the Espionage act is an unconstitutional relic of past mistakes that should have a stake driven through its heart, head chopped off and stuffed with garlic and the body burned outside in and left in sunlight.

Falsehood /is/ protected. It is a civil matter at very worst. Because if it isn't then you can have prosecutions for "lies" that are really inconvenient facts.

The current jurisprudence /as it should be/ is that the press is an activity and not a position.