Yes, we still have free speech, so shut up about it

In 1999, when then-Braves pitcher John Rocker spewed a bunch of sociological barf onto the pages of Sports Illustrated, I wrote either a column or an editorial – I honestly can’t remember which and don’t feel like looking it up – saying in effect that Rocker was an idiot.

The ink was hardly dry on it when I got a letter from a longtime family acquaintance, a career radio man, scolding me for trying to deny Mr. Rocker his First Amendment rights, and adding something to the effect that a journalist, of all people, ought to be ashamed for not respecting the very constitutional franchise that protects my profession.

I didn’t respond. If I had, I would have told him I wasn’t denying Rocker his First Amendment rights (as if it would ever be in my power to do such a thing) – I was exercising my own. And that frankly, it was kind of pathetic for a broadcaster, of all people, not to know the difference.

But that reaction to my criticism of Rocker 10 years ago seems almost to have become the norm: Speak out in disagreement with somebody else’s speaking out, and suddenly you’re a wannabe censor. It’s patently inane, and flies in the face of logic comprehensible to a reasonably bright 4-year-old, but there it is.

In a recent column that begins “Checked on your freedom of speech lately?” Great American Bill O’Reilly weighs in on the “persecution” of Miss California Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA runner-up who got lots of people’s undies in a wad by saying she didn’t approve of gay marriage. (In BillWorld, other people are criticized or disagreed with; conservatives are “persecuted.” It seems if you’re on the right, Nero or Caligula lurks behind every door.)

But this isn’t about O’Reilly; he is what he is, and you know going in what gallery he’s playing to. And I really thought the outcry against what she said – which, like it or not (and I don’t), still represents a majority view in this culture – was overblown and silly. (It did, however, land Prejean a temporary gig as a host on Foxymoron News, just in case this whole thing hadn’t yet gotten stupid enough.)

It’s about what free speech is, and what it isn’t. It isn’t a protection against employers or sponsors or beauty pageant officials taking issue with something you said, and severing their ties with you as a consequence. And it sure as hell isn’t a protection against people responding to a public utterance by calling you – or me – an idiot.

I’ve been called an idiot many times, in some cases accurately. I don’t feel persecuted.
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