[darrellmaurina]

4 posted on Mon Jul 09 2012 07:32:53 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Mouton: “How about we ban the NY Times instead.”

As tempting as that might be, I don't think Alexander Hamilton (founder of the New York Post) or colonial publisher Benjamin Franklin would like that idea very much. The First Amendment goes back in concept to the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, a New York City newspaper editor who was arrested and imprisoned on libel charges after criticizing a corrupt New York colonial governor. The refusal of the jury to convict Zenger despite clearly having violated existing law established the principle in America that truth is an absolute defense against libel and that news media have the inherent right (and responsibility) to criticize the government.

As I like to say to my liberal colleagues, it's pretty hard to advocate restrictions on the rights conveyed by the Second Amendment without logically opening doors to restrictions on the First Amendment.

That means the New York Times has every right under the First Amendment to publish this nonsense, and we on Free Republic have every right under the same First Amendment to dissect the nonsense and prove it to be idiotic.

[Mr Rogers]

OK. Don’t ban the NY Times. Let’s throw New York State out of the Union instead...

:>)

Throw in California as well, and we’d have a pretty good country with 48 states!

[Titan Magroyne]

4 posted on Mon Jul 09 2012 07:32:53 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Mouton: “How about we ban the NY Times instead.”As tempting as that might be, I don't think Alexander Hamilton (founder of the New York Post) or colonial publisher Benjamin Franklin would like that idea very much. The First Amendment goes back in concept to the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, a New York City newspaper editor who was arrested and imprisoned on libel charges after criticizing a corrupt New York colonial governor. The refusal of the jury to convict Zenger despite clearly having violated existing law established the principle in America that truth is an absolute defense against libel and that news media have the inherent right (and responsibility) to criticize the government.

As I like to say to my liberal colleagues, it's pretty hard to advocate restrictions on the rights conveyed by the Second Amendment without logically opening doors to restrictions on the First Amendment.

That means the New York Times has every right under the First Amendment to publish this nonsense, and we on Free Republic have every right under the same First Amendment to dissect the nonsense and prove it to be idiotic. IIRC from Ben Franklin's autobiography, he had been for a while apprenticed to an older brother who was a newspaper publisher. The brother was jailed and fined for having the temerity to critisize Boston's constabulary & PTB for not stopping pirates that were wreaking havoc among local area shippers.

I suppose if the brother had first applied for and gotten his permit to exercise his rights to free speech, he could have avoided being arrested.
/s