Palin says Media Criticism of Her Negative Campaigning is a Threat to Free Speech
Republican nominee Sarah Palin has complained that the media's criticism of her negative campaigning against Barack Obama, such as her associating him with Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a threat to her First Amendment rights.
She said "If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights..."
Her feeling is that by reporting her attacks on Obama as negative, the press is threatening her right to free speech. She says that as a "practical" and "plainspoken" American she just says things as she sees them.
She's running for public office -- the second-most powerful position in the U.S. government.
A real infringement on freedom of speech is if people weren't allowed to criticize or comment upon the things *she* says. Palin apparently feels that it's dangerous to allow people to question, critique or comment upon the statements of those who seek high office. That belief is what is truly dangerous.
The free press is infringing on her free speech? When did she go all crazy commie on us? I guess when you live that close to the former soviet union ...
The comment itself isn't the brightest one to make. What Palin's shown here is that she believes the US people to be as bright as a badly written law sitcom.
Screaming 'FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS' is a childish abuse of what I believe your constitution stands for.
What she SHOULD have done (but she probably would have been punished for) is campaign for news reports to be limited to only providing unbiased coverage, by limiting what they can say.
Now, I DON'T mean stopping the media from telling any and all stories (although I think certain obsessions with getting the big headline are just plain wrong). What I mean is stopping the media from reporting the news certain ways...here are two made-up first-line examples of the same story:
Nottingham - a man was arrested in the suspected murder of a lady in Wandle Street.
Nottingham - a suspected paedophile was arrested today, just yards from an S&M club, for the brutal and cruel slaying, and possible abuse, of a pensioner.
Now - which one is honest, and which one is sensationalised? The second one implies much, but never actually states things as fact...but that won't stop people from believing that a sexually deviant paedophile raped and murdered a defenseless old lady.
What actually happened in my fake story was that a man of 25 was arrested by mistake whilst he was delivering groceries to the disabled on his weekly charity route. The woman was killed by a 40-year old man two days before whilst she was cutting and measuring crack for him in her house. She was 60.
So my point? Palin's gone the wrong way and made herself out to be an idiot, but she does have a legitimate problem with the media, who use extremely biased reporting and should not be allowed to do so.
the first ammendment prohibits Congress from making laws that prohibit free speech or freedom of expression of religion, etc.
An American can say or do whatever the hell he likes based on the things you say or do. He can bar you from his shop based on the fact that you don't like Obama if he wants to.
I've been called sexist for calling this woman a bimbo. But really, what else do you call her?
It's not about her gender. It's about the fact that after receiving an education from six (!) colleges and getting a degree in political science, you'd think she would know something.
Yet like Teflon, knowledge seems to just slide off this woman and refuse to stick.
She's been stumped by a third grade question about what a VP does. She doesn't understand the American political system.
How the hell do you go though life not absorbing information. Especially when it is your chosen academic career, and your actual career.
It is little wonder so many respected politicians have stated she is not even close to being ready to lead the country.
Actually her degree was in Journalism not Political Science.
She has used it all of 9 months as a sports reporter in AK. With her chosen degree it makes this idiot comment even more ridiculous, seems it would have been covered somewhere in all the colleges she attended.
