Dr. Laura’s issue is with Paid Speech, not Free Speech

I’m increasingly aggravated when people allow pundits to talk about First Amendment rights in the “Dr. Laura” situation.

For those that don’t know, the radio host “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger went on a bit of a politically incorrect tirade on her August 10th radio show , complete with racial epithets and jokes in bad taste. Subsequently, she proclaimed that her show would be ending , “The reason is, I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what is on my mind.”

Huh? Regain her first amendment rights? Exactly when were they lost?

At no time were Dr. Laura’s rights at risk. At no time was she being restrained from sharing her thoughts. She is, and has always been, free to say whatever she wants.

There’s a small little caveat to Free Speech though — it’s that word “Free”. See, while you’re “Free” to say what you want, whatever it may be, it changes when you’re being “Paid” to speak. When you’re being “Paid” to speak, people can decide that they don’t want to Pay you any more for any reason they want. You can still say things for “Free” — that’s what’s neat about Free Speech — you just can’t make people Pay you to speak.

The matter at hand, is the question if Dr. Laura should be compensated for her speech, and assisted in spreading said speech by the private sector. This is a pretty important question, because furnishing her with a paycheck and a broadcast forum creates a really bad image of her producers, network and sponsors when she starts to engage in “divisive” commentaries — like blatantly racist speech.

This situation has nothing to do with Free Speech. Simply put, this is an issue about Paid Speech and has everything to do with the Free Market , and funding or promoting a forum for Dr. Laura hurts the advertising revenue and brand integrity of her broadcasters and sponsors.

What I find equally troubling about this situation, is the extent to which hypocrisy and demagoguery factors into Dr. Laura’s most ardent supporters. Not only is this decidedly not a Free Speech issue, but the conservative political leaders and pundits who label it as such also claim to be supporters of Free Market economies. Apparently US conservatives such as Sarah Palin believe that Free Markets really shouldn’t be that Free, and that the private sector should be compelled to fund Paid Speech.

That gives me an idea…

Hey @SarahPalin – can you please create a law where private sector companies have to pay me a lot of money to act against their own interests? k thx!