Speak, don’t speak

Reflections on the meaning of free speech in the 21st century

Nat Hentoff is dead. the very broad definition of free speech that he supported might also be dead. The legendary columnist and free speech activist argued for decades for the widest possible coverage of the First Amendment. Nearly a quarter century ago, Hentoff told me about wandering into his living room one night to find his two young sons watching a pornographic movie; he said he turned around and went back to bed. “As disgusting as it is,” he said, hardcore pornography should be legal everywhere in the country, including online, and he wanted the then-new World Wide Web to be a tool for free speech. Sex has certainly flourished online in the decades since, and so has political speech. But if sex has an obvious existence on the Internet — it is viewed or not, censored by parents ... Read More