The Usual Discourse Around Free Speech Completely Misses the Point

There seems to be a growing misunderstanding with the general public over what is protected speech in the United States and what is not. In another blow to the state of public discourse, the true nature of the right of free speech became even more obscured in light of the recent self-inflicted controversy surrounding the recent hiring and firing by NBC of ex-RNC head Ronna McDaniel, someone who played a major role in perpetuating the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen away from the Orange Man. She has since claimed that she has come to her senses by admitting that the election was, indeed, not stolen.

She has never faced any consequences for her lies, and she certainly doesn’t deserve to be awarded any media positions, either. The corporate media landscape, from what I’ve noticed, have been laconic on this issue in what should be considered a dereliction of their journalistic duty. Fareed Zakaria is one such example, who was on Bill Maher’s rather dull show the other day.

“This gets us to such a fundamental question,” said Maher. “So, NBC news hires her because people are always saying to the news organizations, ‘You’re liberal, let’s hear the other voices’ and it’s not an invalid thing to say… How do you represent a large part of the country that does not believe the election was legitimate? How do you say to people, ‘Ok, we want to include you, but we can’t deny that what you think is stupid. Because Trump lost. What you think is stupid. But we still want to include you.’”

The applause from the crowd kind of got to me, I must admit. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., warned us all about the complacency of the types of people in the audience — the white moderate and their preference for an “absence of tension to a positive peace” — as he managed to write from the appalling conditions of the Birmingham City Jail in 1963.

The answer is simple: you don’t. The people who openly hate you have no interest in coming to the negotiating table. They’ve had their chances to present their unpopular beliefs and ideas and spread conspiracy theories which is good enough.

The beloved Constitution they claim to have read protects people against retribution from the government regarding speech and expression, not private media companies. Anyone is free to stand on the corner with a placard with messages spreading their hate or conspiracy theories without fear of arrest or punishment, as it should be, whereas a media outlet’s refusal to spread that kind of propaganda is simply an editorial decision and nothing more.

Any media or political figures who are responsible for the country’s democratic backsliding by peddling lies and misrepresentations against anyone who won’t get in line to kiss Trump’s wide, orange ass should not be made to feel welcome on any public platform if they continue spreading their hatred and conspiracy theories. Those beliefs need to be intelligently countered so that they die in the dark.

Zakaria pointed out that McDaniel represents 84 million people, which is untrue. A lot of Trumpers hate her exactly because she backtracked on her election denialism. But even if it was true, it doesn’t entitle them to any sort of media representation. After reminding liberals that they were supposed to support free speech, he goes on to make a wild false equivalence by reminding people that Bill Clinton lied under oath and appeared on MSNBC “a few times.” I agree, Fahreed, MSNBC shouldn’t have given that lying rapist and war criminal any air time, either. Then there was that crowd again…

How often do any of these corporate media outlets have as guests the likes of economist Richard Wolfe, journalist Ryan Grim, or analysts Kyle Kulinski or Sam Seder? Mehdi Hasan was the closest progressive voice on corporate news and he was recently fired from MSNBC for reasons that still aren’t quite clear. There is no real left-wing representation in the corporate media club because they are the only ones with enough integrity, courage, and intelligence to attack the system in a way that would actually make a difference for the many and not the few. You would hear a lot more political conversations centered around policy instead of focusing almost exclusively on culture war issues. But those policies would also be tethered to the idea of increasing taxes on wealthy people such as Maher, Zakaria, and McDaniel, which has a lot to do with why they are ever rarely chosen in the first place. George Carlin warned us about this big club, and they do everything they can to keep us out of it.

Here is the video via a Twitter link. I’m not calling it X. The replies to this video perfectly exemplify my point.