"If those laws come up, then it's a Free Speech issue. If the media expresses an opinion about something, it may be repugnant, but again, it's not a Free Speech issue. This Ann Coulter flap has absolutley nothing to do with Free Speech."
I love ignorance parading as authority.
Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment.
That doesn't mean that the only limits to free speech can come from the United States government -- which is prohibited by the US Constitution from doing the same.
There are plenty of other ways in which "free speech" can be limited or punished apart from the US government -- or any government.
Ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition? The Hayes Code? Political correctness?
Hell yeah it's a free speech issue. Coulter's joke was about how political correctness is destroying free speech.
Call someone a schoolyard taunt, and you have to go into rehab or lose your job -- even your career.
And of course her joke has been proved highly accurate by the response it has gotten -- from boneheads like you.
Wake the hell up.