Free Speech
In response to a recent reading on Free Speech and media law, I thought I’d share my views on free speech. I’ll try to make this quick and painless, because I’ve got a game of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with my name on it as soon as I’m done with this, and as much as I love free speech, I really want a suit of elven armor for my character, Elethor the Bard.
The way I see it, free speech is a common sense matter for the most part – the crazies should be restricted when necessary (or just ignored), but by and large if it’s an educated person, I think that they should be able to say pretty much whatever they want. There are some people I do think should actually have their speaking privileges revoked, among them Pat Robertson, Bill O’Reilly, and Ann Coulter for starters, but they do have the right to say pretty much whatever they wish as Americans. Thankfully, that wonderful, rights-abolishing piece of legislation known as the Patriot Act doesn’t seem to be overly restrictive yet, because they can say things like, say, to assassinate the leaders of certain South American countries (ring a bell, Pat Robertson?) and the media will still make fools of them, as they rightly should. By and large, I think people also realize that people like this shouldn’t exactly be taken seriously, but then, they did elect George W. Bush twice…maybe that’s an overstatement.
My liberal biases aside, I say that as long as what you’re doing doesn’t hurt or defame another person, and that your reporting s accurate, then it should be allowed. By the same token, too much expression can also be a bad thing. Flag burning is alright. Some claim it is disrespectful to the veterans of our country. I think it’s important to show respect to our country, but only when it is worthy of respect. It’s like a little kid – you praise him/her when he’s doing something good, and give him a time out when he misbehaves. This is a little bigger than a time-out, of course, because it’s burning a flag, but the message is more or less the same – “you’ve done something wrong, and you’ve lost my respect for it – fix it now.”
