There is no free speech in the USA

[SHRED]

When only the corporate side is heard over the airwaves.
When the wealthy interests have so much control in setting the topic when reaching the masses.

How is that free speech?

[baldguy]

1. There is too free speech - you just need a whole lot of money to get it.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Free speech costs nothing

a megaphone, however, will cost ya.

[baldguy]

6. Right. A guy with a megaphone will get tazed & beaten up by the police.

But hire him to host a show, all of a sudden he's a "journalist". Put him on 100 stations, he's a "respected journalist". Not for what he says but because someone who bought their "free" speech spent a lot of money to create that respect.

[sarcasmo]

7. Then after he was tazed and beaten up they will be told if you would have had a permit it would have

been OK.

[baldguy]

9. Right, then it would all be OK. - Except for the pain & the hospital bills.

And NEXT TIME he's going to remember that pain & that financial hardship, and think twice about his "free" speech.

And his family, friends & neighbors will remember and think twice, too. That's how truly FREE speech becomes "free" speech for billionaires only.

[boppers]

3. How did you post this?

You seem to be confusing free speech with "billions of dollars projecting my speech".

[teamster633]

5. All the same, it's fair to ask,

"if a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

[robcon]

4. The U.S. is just about the freeest country on earth.

Fantasies of control are hysterical.

[baldguy]

8. What about control?

Rupert Murdoch can get his talking heads say any damn thing he wants anytime on any of the million outlets he controls.

Micheal Moore has to beg his distributor for six months before they release his film - which goes on to be the highest-grossing documentary of all time.

Who's got control?

[MineralMan]

10. Nonsense. We have free speech. Getting someone to listen

is the hard part, and the part that requires money. You can say any damn thing you want, but if nobody's listening, you might as well not.

On the other hand, if you say things really, really well, you can get some attention on the tubes.

[whistler162]

11. obviously since you didn't say that and this and other

websites don'tt exist.

[Statistical]

12. The first amendment protection is between YOU and the GOVERNMENT.

Nothing more. Skinner could censor your post and it wouldn't be a "freedom of speech" violation.

You have no right to reach the masses, nobody does. Never have and never will. You simply have a right for the govt (just the govt no other entity) to not interfere in your speech (among other things).

[snot]

13. When Wikileaks is "terrorist."

[SeeEm0431]

14. If there was no free speech

If there was no free speech in America you would have been hauled away for making that post. There's plenty of free speech here. Travel the world. Then you'll learn just how good we have it here.

[X_Digger]

15. Free speech doesn't mean that everyone has to listen to what you say..

.. or that your speech has to have as much air time as everyone else's.

[Celebrandil]

16. America has free speech... but it's still too limited.

Go check the World Press Freedom Index. I'm sorry to say it, but every time I hear America mentioned as the freest country on earth, I just want to throw up. For some reason people even seem to believe it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index