What ever happened to "Free Speech"?
Three things happened in the last week that makes me realize that free speech is history. The first is this out of California. Now much has been said about this story, including this entry over at Shot In The Dark. The fact that McCarthyistic professors can, with a straight face, accuse someone else of McCarthyism (especially when said professors have a history of flunking students who dare to question the professors leftists views) is the highest of high irony. The fact that the furor that they have raised has caused the alumni organization to withdraw their offer and the non-chalance of the reporting of this leads one to realize that not only is free speech dead on our college campus' but that it is accepted as normal.
Secondly, was this editorial out of the NY Times. There is great wailing and gnashing of teeth over the fact that the Supreme Court, in a rare moment of clarity, ruled that portions of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law was wrong.
If the courts create a big "grass-roots lobbying" loophole, it will free corporations and special interests to run phony "issue ads" that are actually a form of unregulated campaign contribution. That is not what Congress wanted when it passed McCain-Feingold, and it is not what the public wants today.
"Phony issue ads"??? Oh you mean like those dastardly Swift Boat Vets that banded together with their own time and money to make ads that were critical of John Kerry's leadership abilities????? Make no bones about it people, the only people that the NY Times wants free speech for (especially in the last 60 days before an election) is themselves! They certainly do not want "we the people" to have it! The Wall Street Journal hit the nail on the head in this editorial today when it spoke of McCain Feingold's "unprecedented restrictions" being an assault on the free exchange of ideas!
Then there is this. Google announces, with great fanfare, that they are going to be offering censored services in Communist China. The same communist China that recently closed down a newspaper that was "critical" of the current regime. The same Communist China that sent a reporter to jail for over reporting an outbreak of dengue fever in a remote province!
"Li Changqing reported for U.S.-based news portal Boxun, which is blocked in China, that more than 100 people were infected with the mosquito-borne disease. Authorities in the provincial capital Fuzhou kept silent for one month before announcing 94 cases."
That's worthy of jail time????? Well then look out NY Times and Strib staffs. The Bush Administration is coming for you next. What's that you say? We have rights in this country???? Not according to the fever swamp. According to the Democratic Party, President Bush is the second coming of Hitler and Stalin and "you KNOW what I'm talking about....."
There is a serious point to all of this. Goggle is "self-censoring" in order to get into China and yet they are refusing to work with the US goverment in it's search for terrorists using their sites. I have nothing wrong with them choosing to self-censor in order to gain 4 billion customers mind you (it's the market after all) but if they are going to willingly work with one government, the time is going to come when that cooperation with the governments is not going to be expected, it will be mandated! And that is going to be the day when people will finally realize that they squandered away their rights to free speech!
posted by The Lady Logician at 7:10 PM permalink
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