FREE SPEECH AND THE INTERNET

FREE SPEECH!!! There is no concept in America held more dear than our right to express ourselves without censorship. We have the right to say what we want, when we want…but there are some limitations. If you exercise your right of free speech and lie to a newspaper; the paper may be sued for libel. If you go on TV and lie about someone; you may be sued for slander. You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater without suffering criminal consequences. You have the right to tell your co-worker that you saw his wife with another man…but is it the right thing to do?

We have the right to free speech but we also have a responsibility not to misuse that right. And there has been no greater test of our belief in free speech than e-mail and the rise of the internet blogger. Anyone can create a website that says ANYTHING! Anyone can create a screen name and find the freedom to spew whatever lies they like under the pseudonym of that anonymous name. New technology grants us a greater audience to hear our voice while at the same time it helps to hide the speaker and consequently it relieves that same speaker of the responsibility for his or her speech. The result is an intricate web of deceit spread virally through the internet that creates a modern myth with little if any basis in reality. These myths then become “news” that is shown and re-shown on cable news 24/7. Senator Barack Obama has become the poster child for such attacks. There are now huge numbers of Americans convinced that he is Muslim, was sworn in on a Koran, is the anti-Christ, has a wife that hates America, will raise everyone’s taxes, hates “whitey”….need I go on? As Senator Obama himself has said, “If you see this Barack Obama, let me know. He sounds really scary”

This atmosphere of constant attack tends to make one a bit “jumpy” and I personally thought the Obama campaign overreacted to the recent cover of THE NEW YORKER. (You know the cartoon drawing; showing Obama in Muslim garb fist-bumping Michelle dressed as a machine gun toting, afro wearing, Black Panther, both warming themselves by an American flag burning in the fireplace.) It was a distraction that didn’t need a comment by the campaign…or so I thought.

I read the explanation of the cartoon by the editor of the NEW YORKER. David Remnick wrote that it “ satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign…. Satire is what we do, and it is meant to bring things out in the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful and the absurd. And that’s the spirt of this cover… [It] "combines a number of images that have been propagated . . . by some on the right, about Obama’s supposed ‘lack of patriotism’ or his being ‘soft on terrorism’ That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office."

It made sense to me!

Then I read a recent posting on a Fox Website regarding the same magazine cover. The blogger expressed the opinion that, “It seems to me anyone that chooses to run for president should take a good long look at the fact they will be scrutinized, made fun of, even humiliated (in some cases) because of their background or because of a stupid statement that they make.” She then closed by poising the question, “Are we to give up our "freedom of speech" and "freedom of the press" because of all the sensitivity or that it's "politically incorrect"? Come on, this is America! I say, if you choose this road, be prepared, keep a sense of humor and if you can't laugh at yourself, "pull up your big boy/girl pants" and move it or lose it.”

In general, I agree with her comments, but it was other comments she made that helped me to understand why the Obama campaign came out so strongly against the NEW YORKER’s cover. She also commented that “Frankly, I don't know if Michelle is a terrorist or not. I don't know that Barrack is a Muslim or not. I do know that as a child he was schooled in Indonesia, and that is the world's largest Islamic Country, with a 90% Muslim population. Coincidence, whatever!” And here lies the problem with the lack of personal responsibility for statements made on internet blogs. By repeating a large lie over & over, it takes on a life of its own. Many people will decide after constant bombardment of a big lie that even if the big lie is not completely true, there must be some basis of truth to the rumor. That is how one goes from “he was schooled in a Muslim country so he must be Muslim”. (Does that mean that a Muslim who goes to a Catholic school must become a Catholic?)

Perhaps most telling of all was the comment, “Frankly, I don't know if Michelle is a terrorist or not.” The blogger who already believed that Obama is a Muslim because of e-mails is now ready to believe his wife is a terrorist because of a cartoon drawing appearing on a magazine cover. (For the record, Michelle Obama is currently on leave from her position as the vice president of community affairs at the University Of Chicago Medical Center. Please explain to me how the right of Free Speech allows you the freedom to make that leap of logic!)

As a nation, we have reached the point where we must defend ourselves from the ridiculous…because there are way too many of us who seem oblivious to irony. And an election is too important to lose due to a lie made true by repetition. Freedom of Speech must not be constrained in any way, but until we learn as a nation to use make use of it responsibly on the internet we must not condemn the victims for protesting the lies spread about them.