Please note that Palin's major was Communication.

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

Someone sit this ...person down with a copy of the Constitution, stat. Cause if this willfully ignorant woman is actually the new face of the Republican Party then America is got a problem of MASSIVE proportions...

Balloon Juice reports:

The thing that immediately stuck out to me about Palin’s bizarre 1st Amendment comments yesterday was that this didn’t seem like the first time I had her say something like that. It turns out it was not.Here she is a few weeks ago saying something equal parts incoherent and creepy:

As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we’ve really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance.

And here she is yesterday:

“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”

Glenn Greenwald clarifies:

The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.
If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.
This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional. MORE

Someone else pointed out that this BS was equivalent to a bully, having beaten up someone for a while, complaining bitterly when a teacher notices and upbraids him for his actions. See, Palin lies about and smears Obama (and while we are trying to wrap her mind around the constitution can we include Bible Studies as well? Cause I seem to remember a prohibition on LYING somewhere in there, and I am DAMN sure that Jesus would have had caustic things to say about her behaviour) and then complains when people tell her that she is lying about  and smearing Obama.  Much as I HATE the religion, I am really not sure it deserves her and her fundamentalist Republican friends.


She says it more trenchantly than I

 

Let's unpack this a bit.

 

If I understand her correctly -- and with Palin, it's sometimes tough to understand her general incoherence -- the governor believes she should make scurrilous, dishonest, and personal attacks against Democrats. She's afraid, however, that reporters might tell voters she's making scurrilous, dishonest, and personal attacks, and worse, that voters might recoil from her vicious style of campaigning.

And if that happens, politicians in the future might hesitate before launching scurrilous, dishonest, and personal attacks of their own. What a brutal "chilling effect" that would be.

The entire point of the First Amendment is to allow ideas to either flourish or perish in the open air, on their own merits. If your speech has no merit, it dies an entirely natural and well-deserved death. The First Amendment allows Sarah Palin to spew poison. It also allows news outlets, other politicians, and informed citizens to bash her enthusiastically over spewing said poison.

Nothing in the First Amendment claims that you're to be free from people rejecting the things you say. It's so simple a simpleton can understand it, but it's beyond Sarah Palin's grasp. This says all we need to know about her.

She isn't the only one.

Comments

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

At least in my college, Communications had the reputation of being the major for people who didn’t know what they wanted to do or didn’t want to do any real work in school ^^;

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

not at mine. trust.

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

Did you go to UF? Always tried to figure out where you were going to school ^_^

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

nope. :)

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

UNF? USF? FSU? Flagler?? ^_^

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

nope:)

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

UCF? Am I even in the right state? ^_^;

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

nope :)

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

I thought for sure it was Florida ^_^;

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

heh-heh-heh :)

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

Georgia? ^_^;;

You’re definitely the person on my friends list I know the very least about, other than you're really cool, and where you're originally from, I think ^^

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

being anonymous is FUN:)

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

I just knew you were going to say that ^_^