The right to profanity

Jeff Jarvis’s Buzzmachine is on a roll–his post about the right to profanity is dead on.

The path the FCC is on at this point is incredibly scary and disheartening. Especially now that so many Americans are shedding blood in a faraway place, ostensibly to bring democracy to that country, having my and your tax money spent by a bunch of nut jobs to figure out how to neuter the First Amendment as much as possible is completely grotesque.

Here’s the deal about free speech: It’s about protecting ugly speech, uncomfortable speech, the kind of speech that upsets people. Speech that is middle of the road and safe is never in danger in any society. The health of a democracy is measured by how it treats the oddballs, those on the fringe, not by how it treats the bourgeoisie.

Posted Friday, 16 April, 2004 by Nic Lindh

« What is journalism?

Taking the red pill again »