> It is one thing to guarantee freedom of expression where there are many
> independent voices. But in a situation when a few corporate megaphones
> drown all independent voices while hiding behind the freedom of speech
> principle - those megaphones need to be shut down because they
> undermine the
> common good which the principle under the guise of which they operate
> protects.
Well, there is the little matter of having to repeal the First Amendment before you can accomplish this.
Perhaps it's time to reopen the question of whether the FA is doing more harm than good. Plenty of folks on the right think this; I wonder if anyone cares to make a case from the left.
My personal view (perhaps clouded by the fact that I grew up as an American) is that it would be a disaster to repeal the FA, but I recognize that most other countries, including European countries, have no such constitutional provision and still have records of preserving free speech which are not much worse, at least, than that of the US.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________ "...So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." -- Voltaire