When I began following free speech controversies, I was a First Amendment absolutist. Now I’m something less comfortable. I still think free speech is a good idea, certainly better than alternatives I’ve come across, but I’ve learned that everyone has a line that can’t be crossed, a word that sticks in the craw, an image that feels like a kick to the gut. The First Amendment, bless its little heart, always eventually lets us down (self-protection is innate, tolerance an acquired taste), so how can I not be bothered by its limitations?

This is a running log of arguments over free speech – some silly, some funny, some hard -- because free speech is all about argument. Being able to speak our mind makes us feel good and it's essential to real democracy and fairness. Yet, in the end, one of the best reasons to keep our speech rights intact is that we miss them when they’re gone.

Monday, March 14, 2011

the truth shall set you free -- from your govt job

Bradley Manning probably broke the law if, as assumed, he leaked batches of classified documents to WikiLeaks, but his bigger crime seems to have been embarrassing the government -- a govt which continues to embarrass itself by imprisoning him under unnecessarily harsh conditions while slapping on more charges without bringing him to trial.  Truth is the best defense in libel cases (and, in this case, would probably have support in the court of public opinion, if people started paying attention), but it got P.J. Crowley, State Dept. spokesman and retired Air Force colonel, sacked for his concise assessment of the Manning affair at an MIT seminar.  Crowley apparently knew what he was saying: he agreed that his remarks were on the record before they got blogged widely.  Maybe he was just sick of being a "government spokesman"?

Wednesday, March 2, 2011