22 Sep

The Meaning of Free Speech

The following are two readers’ comments on this week’s commentary, “Ben Shapiro: Lions and Scavengers”:

Comment #1:

Thanks for your messaging on Charlie Kirk, but you completely missed Kirk’s point.

Instead of emphasizing that speaking out on virtually anything should not be censored, you say that everyone should be self-censoring in the name of safe politics. No. That’s the opposite of what Charlie Kirk stood for. Free speech in America means truly free speech. Hate speech is free speech. Invective is free speech. Political criticism is free speech. Self-interested BS is free speech. Threats that are not threats of violence are free speech.

That’s true for Kimmel, Brendan Carr, Donald Trump and everyone else.

As part of his monologue last Monday, Jimmy Kimmel said:

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff which got some criticism but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this.”

Kimmel followed this last line with sarcasm that he obviously thought was funny, a viral clip of the president responding to a reporter who asked him how he was holding up after Kirk’s death.

President Trump answered: “I think very good. And by the way right there you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about for 150 years and it’s gonna be a beauty.”

Kimmel’s punchline: “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction. Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

Kimmel thought this also was funny. Free speech can be stupid and disrespectful, but it’s still free speech.

Then, on Wednesday, Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, exercised his free speech right. He said that Kimmel’s words were part of a “concerted effort to try to lie to the American people” and that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at.” “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead… There’s actions we can take on licensed broadcasters. And frankly, I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say… ‘We’re not gonna run Kimmel anymore…because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC.'”

Threats that are not physical threats are free speech. So are lies.

The largest operator of ABC’s affiliates, Nexstar—which needs FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger—also exercised its right to speak freely (and in its own self-interest). It threatened to stop airing Kimmel’s show from its stations.

ABC then exercised its right to suspend Kimmel’s show. It exercised its capitalist right.

President Trump followed with: “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”

Free speech truly means that every American, including presidents, can say whatever they want to say.

Comment #2:

Dear Lonely Realist –

I’m really worried about you –

Of all the candidates for this topic, you pick Ben Shapiro?

Of all the hateful and lying rhetoric by Libs, you pick Ben Shapiro?

Have you lost your way?

I’ve never heard you comment on any of these:

Cory Booker wants to punch the President.

Joe Biden wants to beat up the president.

Maxine Waters says to get in Republican voter faces.

Jimmy Kimmel talks about assassinating the President.

Snoop Dog makes a video of a fake assassination of the President.

Kathy Griffin poses with a severed head of the President.

Johnny Depp jokes about assassinating the President.

Madonna says she wants to blow up the White House.

BLM chants they want dead cops and fry ’em like bacon.

ANTIFA routinely assaults conservatives – captured time and again on video.

AOC calls our border agents Nazis and refuses to condemn the violent attacks on them.

The Squad routinely supports terrorists of Palestine and Hamas and routinely spews anti-semitic rhetoric.

Democratic Congress refused to call out Ilham Omar for appalling anti semitic remarks.

Rashid Tlaib calls the President a mother fucker.

And, there have been two assassination attempts against Trump, the first resulting in innocent folks being killed.

Justice Kavanaugh attempted assassin now identifies as a transgender – coincidence? Maybe?

Charlie Kirk is killed by a leftist indoctrinated young man whose lover is transgender and has been told Charlie Kirk is a fascist.

Rachel Maddow spent all show a year ago calling Charlie Kirk a racist. His assassination – 20 seconds.

Where is Julian Xu of Oberlin who calls for more political assassinations – “bring back the guillotine”?

How about Ohio Judge Berry and his karma remarks? Must have case law to back him up on his stupid and insensitive comments.

How about democrats refusing to fly flags half mast for Charlie but take bended knee for George Floyd (I needn’t go into his rap sheet)?

Did you mention the contrast between prayer vigils vs looting, destruction and burning of cities?

I could go on for hours but your blogs are increasingly becoming more and more lacking credibility. Suggest you stop hanging out with attorneys!

Best,

[Name redacted], part of the Back to Common Sense team – catch the Fever!