Until the Internet came along free speech was an inactive Right. That is to say few people mounted a soapbox to talk to strangers.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. A. J. Liebling


The only people who exercised free speech before the Internet were the people who owned the printing presses. That is why freedom of speech and freedom of the press are often misinterpreted. Getting average Americans to defend freedom of the press is one of the most successful con jobs the government ever pulled off. In the real world, a free press protects the government’s free speech while zealously warding off everyone else’s free speech.

When radio and TV came along those who owned the transmitters controlled speech in those mediums; i.e., the government controlled electronic free speech with licenses issued by the government, and the Fairness Doctrine (1949) when TV was young.

NOTE: Television networks, including subscription TV, oppose free speech on the Internet as much as the government opposes it. Those people make their money by controlling the dialogue. In their minds the Internet is an upstart competitor.

Free speech for individuals came with the Internet. Freedom of speech is the gate Socialists will slam shut at the first opportunity.

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...60#post2768160




Social media is a lot more than tech giants:

A new survey by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News shows 57 percent of Americans believe “social media does more to divide us.”

And 82 percent say “social media does more to waste our time.”

Poll: By 2-1 Americans say social media 'divides us'
Posted By -NO AUTHOR- On 04/05/2019 @ 9:52 am

https://www.wnd.com/2019/04/poll-by-...ia-divides-us/

Analyze that poll’s results and you will conclude that Democrats love print press and television, while they hate the freedom of speech aspect of social media.

NOTE: In my long experience I learned that message board liberals always defend the press, while conservatives always do the opposite.

As I said many times, the government had nothing to fear so long as freedom of speech was limited to soapbox orators and barroom pundits that few people listened to. The government’s paralyzing fear is that average Americans can rebut media turd-maggots on the Internet.

For many Americans, a message board is the legitimate heir to pamphlets of olde. Freedom of speech on the Internet informed the American people about the Democrat Party’s tyrannical agenda and about top Democrats. That situation is more than Democrats can live with. Hence:


Obama czar proposed government ‘infiltrate’ social network sites
Sunstein wants agents to 'undermine' talk in chat rooms, message boards
Published: 01/12/2012 at 10:56 PM
by Aaron Klein

http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/obama-cza...network-sites/

First print press then television can be blamed for everything that went wrong in this country. Television should be applauded for killing print. Television’s talking heads should also be punished for what they did the country after 1960.

Print press is blameworthy for everything that went wrong in this country. Without a free press this country would not have open-borders, twenty to thirty million illegal aliens, sanctuary cities, socialized medicine, a Communist-controlled education industry, government unions, non-existent international law, the United Nations, world leaders, and a long list of lesser media evils that are SOP.

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...57#post2931557

Incidentally, a few years before Bill O’Reilly lost his microphone he went crazy attacking the Internet. O’Reilly was protecting television and his income. To this day Bullshit Bill does not understood why television does more harm to this country in one week than the Internet can do in a century.

Overpaid journalists believe that free speech means talking without being paid. Tax dollars funding journalism’s speech with tax deductible advertising dollars should never be allowed.

Professional journalists would have the rest of us believe that their opinions are better than ours; their insights more enlightening than ours, and their monopoly on public debate more necessary than our freedoms.

Welfare state advocates believe that everything should be free except speech.

The government always attacks freedom of speech —— never freedom of the press. Totalitarians have good reason to silence free speech. Their ideologies cannot stand the light of day.

NOTE:
Television moguls will never hand their microphones to serious rebuttals anymore than newspapers published a letter to the editor that threatened a newspaper’s first loyalty whatever it happened to be. The United Nations, not this country, is television’s first loyalty.

Press barons guard their microphones in order to prevent serious rebuttals being heard by millions more than a letter to the editor was ever published when threatened a newspaper’s political agenda. And have you noticed that letters to the editor morphed into TV news shows asking viewers send in their comments by email on any given topic. Some shows even offer a reward if the comments are read on air. That is an inside joke because there is zero chance a news show will air anything that hits too close to home. The number of idiots who respond provide a gauge on the size of the show’s audience. Responding to poll questions is another measurement gimmick TV news rely on.

QUESTION: Did you ever hear U.S. membership in the U.N. challenged? ANSWER: I never did. In addition to the blackout, it is illogical to believe that news shows did not receive millions of emails criticizing U.N. membership, yet not one was ever read on-air.

Shoving politically correct speech down the public’s throat was the Democrat Party’s most successful attack on freedom of speech. To Democrats “politically correct speech” is doublespeak for politically INCORRECT speech. Hate speech soon followed. Politically correct speech was a masterpiece of doublespeak in that politically INCORRECT speech will get you killed if Democrats have their way.

As to tech giants: It is not their job to defend attacks on the First Amendment. Google et al. cleverly justify the attack by censoring hate speech on the assumption that every American opposes hate speech because they are too stupid to know they are losing freedom of speech. The truth is that most Americans realize that prohibit freedom of speech in any venue and it will not be long before it is prohibited everywhere.

Incidentally, Tech giants prove that press censorship is only practiced by those who own the machinery. Tech giants own the platforms, but executives do not decide to institute censorship on their own. They get their marching orders from the government. Nevertheless, freedom of speech’s continued growth on the Internet is a frightening prospect to the federal government; hence, they are reacting like cornered rats.

Finally, President trump was wrong when he said faux news is the enemy of the people:

Television journalists are nothing more than well-paid assassins. The federal government is the enemy of the people. Proof: Had television never been invented print press alone could never newspeak the American people into surrendering their country to international bankers.

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...83#post2837383