Posted on 09/03/2005 11:31:46 PM PDT by JoeBob
Free speech under siege: The case of Kirby Wilbur Larry P. Arnn
September 3, 2005
Kirby Wilbur is a popular radio talk show host in Seattle. He is funny, intelligent, savvy, and—it must be admitted—sassy. I have been on his show twice, and he has been out to our campus in Michigan to talk to our students. I happen to agree with him on most things, but I venture that any fair person speaking with him would think him interesting and engaging, if also perhaps frustrating to oppose.
But these are not the important things about Kirby Wilbur just now. The important thing about him just now is that he is an ordinary American. He is not wealthy or well born. He was educated at the University of Washington, not at Harvard or Yale. He has not been the deputy secretary of this government agency or that. He does not teach at Stanford. He is a not a banker for JP Morgan. He is a Seattle man who happens to be smart and talented. He thrives in a world that is keenly competitive. No one listens to him because they are made to do so. His listeners have lots of choices.
Recently, this regular fellow has come under the gaze of regulatory government. Alongside him, other talk radio hosts, including John Carlson, are under the same scrutiny. Government has taken the first step toward shutting them up.
The backdrop of this attempt to deny these men free speech is a tax initiative in Seattle. An election is underway. The initiative would provide a tax reduction, and if I know him, Kirby is for it. If I know him, he invites people who are against it to come on his show and argue about it. If they do, he probably wins the argument. Probably the initiative is opposed by lots of people in government who get more money to deploy if it fails. Probably Kirby makes them angry. And now some of these people want to make Kirby report his talk show as a campaign contribution. City attorneys brought suit to compel this, and a Judge named Wickham has ruled in their favor. The Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C., has since filed an appeal against Judge Chris Wickham’s ruling.
Both radio talk shows and web logs, or blogs, are now under threat of regulation under campaign finance laws. These two ways of communicating have been revolutionary in recent years because they are cheap, they offer variety, and the barriers to entry are low. It is not easy to build a national television network. Most major newspapers enjoy near monopolies in their towns. On the other hand anyone can start a blog, and very many can and do start and manage radio stations. Podcasting and internet broadcasting will soon make that as easy as blogging—if it is still legal to do so.
The regulation of speech in our country has now reached an advanced state. This is a serious matter for an obvious reason, and also for a reason that is perhaps less obvious, but fundamental. The obvious reason is simply that this is a free country, and in such a country we ought to be able to talk. Also, we need to be able to talk, in order to cooperate in figuring things out and making decisions.
The less obvious reason goes deeper. We are blessed with the first “purely representative” form of government in history. That means that the sovereign does not directly govern. In England, at the time of the American founding, the King was the executive branch. In ancient Athens, the sovereign people met together to pass laws. The Founders of our country believed that these institutions produced despotism or runaway passions or both. So they organized that we would be governed by representatives, chosen through elections.
This means that the only way we have to control our government is through elections. And now the government, increasingly, is controlling elections in ever greater detail, and with the plainest purpose to affect who wins and loses. One of the arguments in favor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law was that unfair attacks were being made on candidates. Of course, it is in the interest of our elected officials to make it illegal to criticize them.
Kirby Wilbur is important today not because he is a talent, which he is. He is important because he is an ordinary citizen, enjoying no privilege except his natural gifts and the voluntary attention of his audience. If his talking freely on the radio is made illegal, then, to quote a great man, we shall have gone a long way to the point where “the people shall have ceased to be their own rulers.”
Larry P. Arnn is the president of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.
©2005 Larry P. Arnn
Previously posted.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476245/posts
So, would this law also apply to the major media? Or would they only engage in "profiling" and tax conservative shows?
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