The right to freedom of speech has been limited by the courts in some ways. You can’t yell “Fire” in the middle of a crowded theater when there is no fire. You can’t stand in front of a Synagogue on the Sabbath and preach racial hatred for Jews. Those things are not about expressing alternate social or political views. They’re about creating havoc and stirring up hatred. They lead directly to harming other people.
The Supreme Court of the land, in an action many claim is unconstitutional, has extended the principle of freedom of speech to include the ‘freedom of expression’. (The constitutionality issue is one that claims the high court oversteps its powers when it, in affect, creates new rights by such rulings.) One can burn the flag of the United States and it is protected as freedom of expression. A prostitute can be arrested for trading sex for money…but put a camera on that same transaction and it becomes ‘freedom of expression’. If an ordinary citizen were to follow a celebrity (or anyone else) everywhere they went it would be considered stalking. Let that same bottom feeder do it with a camera and it becomes freedom of expression again.
Those in the media itself argue that the public has ‘the right to know’…another ‘right’ not mentioned in the Constitution. It doesn’t take a close examination of their motives to see that their only motive is to sell their product…newspapers or airtime. Witness the farce that the O.J. Simpson trail became. That was all in the name of the publics ‘right to know’. The same philosophy has made names like Joey Buttafuco, Amy Fisher, Jessica Hahn and Tanya Harding a part of our culture…instead of the embarrassment that they should be.
What fundamental right is being denied the public by not hearing every little detail of some sorted and twisted tale? Doesn’t it actually harm ones ability to get a fair trial when such cases are tried in the media?
Just watch and see what the Michael Jackson case turns into. This guy is an absolute freak created by the media. They say he’s a black man…but I’ve seen no evidence for either assertion. Any man in his forties that likes to sleep with children completely unrelated to him has some serious issues. Now, he may or may not actually be a pederast. I don’t know. I know he has the right to a fair trial and, in court at least, is innocent until proven guilty. He may not be someone I’d want to have over for dinner but he deserves his day in court. Unlike the sound bites the media feeds the public to sell their wares, the jury will hear all the facts of the case. I’d like to say we can count on them to deliver a fair verdict but based on Jackson’s fans that automatically declare him innocent, the race card that will no doubt be played, and the leaks that the media has unabashedly published (in the name of freedom of speech/the press) I have my doubts.
It seems that the camera has become so much a part of our culture, thanks to Hollywood, that bad behavior in front of it is excused in the name of ‘freedom of expression’. While Hollywood and the media put up the pretense that they are protecting our freedoms and wrap themselves in the flag, they’re spitting on the true spirit of the Constitution in the name of profit.
Freedoms aren’t free. Ours have cost the blood of many good men and women over the two centuries America has been a nation. Indeed, without freedom of speech a free society would be impossible. My question is: Have we gone too far with it? Has it become a license for irresponsible behavior? Freedoms demand responsibility if they are to survive and responsibility is something that’s in short supply these days. When we sell ours for a profit…what does that make us? The freedoms the media has turned into a 'license to profit' have only hurt the cause of justice. Call me old-fashioned but I think when justice suffers…we all do. I know the founding fathers didn’t intend that…
No comments:
Post a Comment