Why Trump is Wrong on Free Speech

American Spectator ^ | April 13, 2016 | Gary Shapiro

[FourtySeven]

You might want to start here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3420863/posts

There’s probably some video on YouTube.

[amnestynone]

“I prefer a constitutional republic to a banana republic.”

Unless we get someone who fights back a bannana Republic is exactly what we are going to have.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I believe firmly in the First Amendment. Democrats want to gut its free exercise clause, by defining free exercise to be “establishment.”

But then, Democrats favor an establishment of journalism, in which only those who agree with them are “real journalists.”

There is a natural tendency of journalists to be critics; journalists do not do things but only report the bad news which naturally occurs when other people do. Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts . . . The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds

famously dismissed the conceit that critics stand on the same plane as doers, but it is unreasonable to expect that journalists would see it his way. The problem is not that journalists have a POV. The problem is that wire services all wire services inherently homogenize that POV. Wire services - particularly the AP - quickly became established as the way people learned “what is going on,” and just as quickly became controversial for their propaganda power. The AP used that very propaganda power to defeat those who raised that objection, promoting the claim that journalists - all journalists - were “objective.” But in fact, nobody is absolutely objective - and nobody is less objective than the person, or institution, who actually thinks he is objective.

A century and a half later, the mission of the wire services - the conservation of expensive communications bandwidth in the propagation of the news - is an anachronism because “expensive” communications bandwidth is now dirt cheap. Wire services constitute continual virtual “meetings” of journalists, and those “meetings” have precisely the effect that Adam Smith projected back in 1776:   

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

The AP was found to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1945. Now that wire services are no longer “too big to fail,” they should be sued into oblivion.

[JAKraig]

People miss the point, public figures are slandered all the time by the press and there is nothing currently that can be done about it. If it isn't true it should be considered slander by anyone who publicizes it. It is ok to lie to your friend about someone but to publish it on TV or Papers should be illegal.

[cymbeline]

“You might want to start here: (link to Cruz family interview)”

Thanks. I saw that. Was that the most insightful/charming/whatever moment of the entire interview?

[kevao]

I have neighbors from NY who have stated that that is how Trump operates. He sues everybody for everything. If you say something he doesn’t like he sues you. If you beat him in a deal he sues you. If he wants something that belongs rightly to you he sues you. He is the classic thin skinned, whiny, bully.

He's just playing by the rules, and winning. If his opponents don't like it, they had better learn the rules better and beat him at his own game.

[Sun]

Check out:

https://twitter.com/tedcruz but I don’t know if it’s the entire interview.

I watched it live, and it was hillarious. Ted was really good, and I especially like the phone skit.

[Sun]

“..He wants to make it easier to sue news organizations so that he can use the court system as a personal attack dog ..”

I try to warn people, Donald is a control freak, who wanted to end primaries in NY when he was considering a run for governor, or he would not run. GOP told him NO, and Donald did not run.

I notice he does not say that now that we are having the presidential primaries. :)

[meadsjn]

What can you tell me about the Cruz-and-family interview?

No link to the video, but Cruz talked about watching porn with a Supreme Court justice, discussing it right in front of his wife and daughters. Bizarre.