EDITORIALS

Dept. of Crimethink

On the value of a First Amendment

“Any time somebody is made to pay-rightly or wrongly-for comments they make publicly, there are always some folks who’ll email or tweet or even, gasp, write to us, usually questioning the value of the whole First Amendment. What happened to [Phil] Robertson was unfair, and A&E will deserve every bit of the backlash it’ll get. But, no, this isn’t a First Amendment case. Why? Because the First Amendment to the United States Constitution says, in its very opening, ‘Congress shall make no law . . . .’ Which means that Phil Robertson won’t be visited by the police. Or be ticketed for his candid comments. He won’t have to appear before a judge. And he won’t go to jail.”

-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sunday, December 22, 2013 YOU MIGHT have heard that a bearded man in camo named Phil Robertson, he of a television show named Duck Dynasty, has been in the news of late. Because of something he said that offended a bunch of folks. There was another time not so long ago when another celebrity was caught saying something offensive in the media, and when his boss took exception to his comments, some of our friends also began lamenting about citizens in this country Losing Our Right To Free Speech.

The last time we remember this happening was back in 2011 when a singer of some note named Hank Williams Jr. went on Fox News to comment on the political questions of the day. Our considered judgment on that now well-forgotten matter: Anybody watching Fox News to see a country music singer being interviewed about current political issues deserves what he gets. What folks got on that occasion was Ol’ Hank comparing President Obama to Hitler. See what we mean?

Soon after that, Mr. Williams was told by his employer, ESPN, that his services singing the introductory number for Monday Night Football would no longer be needed.

EVEN SOME years before that episode, back in December of ‘99, a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves-a blowhard named John Rocker-gave an interview to Sports Illustrated in which he insulted . . . well, pert’ near everybody. A better question might have been: Whom didn’t he insult? For details, we refer you to the internet. No need to repeat all those slurs here. Or anywhere, for that matter.

Major League Baseball promptly and understandably suspended Mr. John Rocker for his comments. It has its reputation, not to say gate receipts, to think about.

After both those flaps, you could hear a lot of doomsday rhetoric about the end of free speech in America. Yeah, where did it go, huh, huh?

The answer: It didn’t go anywhere. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, among invaluable others. But that doesn’t mean your employer can’t make policy. Or your spouse. You just try telling your better half that she looks fat in that dress, or your worse half that he really needs to lose some of that flab around the middle, and see how far you get waving the First Amendment around. Good luck with that.

For a great example, or maybe horrible example, of what can happen without a First Amendment (and not just in places like North Korea or Cuba), see the news out of the United Arab Emirates. That’s a place of towering skyscrapers, golf tournaments, and, yes, even laws respecting its subjects’ rights. The folks who put out what’s called the International Human Rights Indicator report each year say the UAE is first among Arab countries and 14th in the world when it comes to respecting human rights.

Congratulations, Mubarak and Mazeltov, emirs! You’re lacking only one not-so-small thing: a First Amendment.

So last week the world found out that six foreigners and two citizens of the emirates had been sentenced to jail-up to a year in some cases-for making a spoof video about the culture in Dubai. A court there said these “criminals” had, ahem, defamed “the UAE society’s image abroad,” which is why they were sentenced under a cybercrimes act-which sounds like something you’d read about in a dystopian sci-fi novel. Except in the UAE, it’s all too real. So that people there can be punished for “publishing or disseminating any information, news, caricatures, or other images liable to endanger state security and its higher interests or infringe on the public order,” that is, cybercrime. Which covers a lot of arbitrary ground. The way thought crime could in George Orwell’s small but still highly relevant book, 1984.

INFRINGE on the public order? Damage the state’s higher interests? Those would seem to be subjective enough grounds on which to prosecute almost anybody for anything. For example, our own John Deering for his caricatures, or reporters at Arkansas’ Newspaper for uncovering the abuses of politicians on an almost weekly basis. With a law like the UAE’s, an emir could shut down Saturday Night Live.(Is nothing sacred?)

So allow us to say Thank Goodness, not for the first time, for the First Amendment. Thank you, founding fathers. Somehow you all managed to be scholars and gentlemen, revolutionaries and conservatives, Englishmen and Americans, devout believers and earnest freethinkers, and all of the above. You gave us a constitutional shield that this newspaper relies on every day. So do all Americans.

What the Founders didn’t do is recognize a freedom from criticism for what we publish. They couldn’t. For that would have infringed on somebody else’s First Amendment rights. Theirs are just as precious as our own. And we need to be just as committed to defending and perpetuating them. For freedom is indivisible. And the more we respect others’, the more secure our own.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 12/30/2013

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