> Presidents and members of Congress constantly try to pressure the media to cover things differently, cover things less, or more. This happens every day
Ok, so then you could have just said "yes. I agree with you completely that they were trying to pressure them to remove the content.
You are completely correct in everything that you said!"
You just agreed with me.
> Requests, criticism, even pressure - those are not the same
A chilling effect on speech can still exist. And chilling effects on speech, from government/politicians, is something we aught avoid.
Both political parties do this, and have full time press relations people whose whole job is to do this. We might feel that is unhealthy, but crucially, it is not a violation of the First Amendment. Requests, criticism, even pressure - those are not the same as jailing those who defy the requests, or compelling their speech at gunpoint, or seizing the means of broadcast.