Hail, Bloggers and Bloggees

I have been an advocate and fan of Freedom of Speech for many years. As you might have noticed, when I write about it, I capitalize freedom and speech. I have done so since the day in eighth grade when a teacher told us that it did not apply to students. I was stunned. And she was quite wrong... as subsequent events and court rulings have shown.

I was reminded of that when I was in the Navy and got into trouble for voicing my opinion in an answer to a question about a hypothetical situation by a shipmate. It turned out that those in the military have a very limited right to Freedom of Speech. It is ironic and understandable that those charged with defending the Constitution and the nation should not enjoy all of the rights that Constitution protects.

And bloggers and those who read their posts should be as supportive as possible of that specific right.

I often preach about how people should read blogs and listen to networks with which they disagree.

Apparently the president does not agree. This may be old news, as it goes back a week or so, but the president has made statements against Foxnews and conservative radio. He seems to feel that these two entities are exerting influence on Congress and impeding bi-partisanship and compromise.

Perhaps he is right that they influence politicians. But he is wrong in seeing it as a bad thing. It is exactly what Freedom of Speech is all about. Maybe he just thinks they are exerting undue influence, that they do not represent a significant portion of the citizenry. If so, he is wrong about that also.

If they did not represent a significant portion of the populace they would have withered away and gone out of business.

The left likes to shout about speaking truth to power. But isn't that just what conservative media is doing?  What is a national dialogue or a national discussion if only one side has a voice?