If what she reports is how things developed, I think things look bleak for public discourse. It's as if we'll all have to censor our thoughts before pronouncing them. Sure, we can learn to think before we speak and have a lot of internal monologues, but, in the end it's the same. We internalize the thoughts and process them internally without being able to think out loud.

I think it's a shame one cannot think out loud for fear things will be taken literally. Yes, we can mask things by 'anonymizing' the conversations, so instead of using a real person as an example, just say someone or 'journalists'. but it's a shame people's dinner conversations or even pub conversations will be taken as their official edicts and sanctioned pronouncements --when lots of times there is boasting, bravado, nervousness and other times there are threats and other unsavory conduct. However, it's unfair to see it all as the latter kind.