How the editorial board at the New York Times can miss the fact that two of their editorials are so contradictory in nature is simply mind-blowing to me.

They defend, quite properly, freedom of speech for foreigners, from their own repressive governments and insist that internet companies be forced to support American values. Indeed, they chastise the companies for opposing efforts to protect free speech in repressive foreign countries.

What they are resisting are efforts in Congress that could help them stand against repressive governments.

Last January, Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey reintroduced the Global Online Freedom Act in the House. It would fine American companies that hand over information about their customers to foreign governments that suppress online dissent. The bill would at least give American companies a solid reason to decline requests for data, but the big Internet companies do not support it. That shows how much they care about the power of information to liberate the world.

But then, the same newspaper demands that the American government limit and punish political speech here in the United States by implementing another public financing scheme, complete with contribution limits and speech bans. Indeed, they argue that those who engage in too much political speech because of their deep pockets are subverting democracy! Their editorial calls for more government money to campaigns, with more restrictions on the ability of Americans to spend their own money to engage in political speech – and enhanced penalties against those who do dare to speak too much (media organizations like the New York times would, of course, be exempt).

So make no mistake here – what the Times wants is free speech abroad and speech suppression at home. Rather than make China more like the US, though, the result will be to make the US more like China. So if Yahoo has betrayed free speech by its opposition to the Global Online Freedom Act, how much more does the New York Times betray it with support for campaign speech suppression?

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Posted by: Greg at 04:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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