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Americans love free speech, survey finds − until they realize everyone else has it, too.
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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politics
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Nowhere in the 1st amendment does it require that all speech have the same footing. It just means that it cannot be illegal at the federal level to say what you want. It carries no stipulations that platforms need to tolerate it being present, or that anyone has to listen to it, or that you can't kick someone out of your home or business for it.
Which is how we end up with a multi-billion dollar propaganda network spewing conservative lies and coordinating with a political party and calling itself "news."
Clearly some work is needed.
We had the Fairness Doctrine up until 1987 when, guess who, Ronald Reagan killed it.
The Fairness Doctrine wasn't anything close to what I'd call a comprehensive solution to this problem, but it was about the last time that journalists were held to any sort of legal standard. After it was repealed you can pretty much say whatever you want on your news network unless you get sued for libel by an individual, and even that isn't actually a crime, it's a class 2 misdemeanor. Just write the affected party a paycheck and do it to someone else tomorrow.
I wonder if some sort of "truth in labeling" law could curb what gets referred to as news? Like, say what you want, but unless you can prove it you're not allowed to call it news. Would that help to prevent the "they shouldn't have taken me seriously" defense?
Yup! This is mostly self regulating. If you (not you personally)are a real jerk, people don't have to listen to you or amplifiy your message. It is actually kind of a beautiful thing to watch in practice.