Carnal Reason

The Federal Election Commission has been making noises about regulating political speech on blogs. Coyote Blog gets it right:

These past few weeks, we have been debating whether this media exemption from speech restrictions should be extended to bloggers. At first, I was in favor. Then I was torn. Now, I am pissed. The more I think of it, it is insane that we are creating a 2-tiered system of first amendment rights at all, and I really don’t care any more who is in which tier. Given the wording of the Constitution, how do I decide who gets speech and who doesn’t - it sounds like everyone is supposed to:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I have come to the conclusion that arguing over who gets the media exemption is like arguing about whether a Native American in 1960’s Alabama should use the white or the colored-only bathroom: It is an obscene discussion and is missing the whole point, that the facilities shouldn’t be segregated in the first place.

Some have suggested bloggers should be granted the same free speech rights as mainstream journalists. The problem with that approach is that neither Congress not the Supreme Court can grant or revoke the right of free speech. The rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are logically prior to the United States Constitution, which was devised to secure those rights, and which derives its authority from doing so.

To anyone who would favor me with the august privileges of a CNN employee: don’t do me any damned favors. Accepting a ‘media exception’ would mark me a coward, a traitor, and a fool.

Posted on June 5th, 2005 by pwyll
Filed under: General