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ZenongWangFirstPaper 3 - 10 May 2024 - Main.ZenongWang
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"Everyone" Can Be The Press | |
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< | “It is passing strange…,” wrote Justice Scalia in his concurrence opinion for the famous, or infamous Citizens United v. FEC, “... to interpret the phrase ‘the freedom of speech, or of the press’ to mean, not everyone’s right to speak or publish, but rather everyone’s right to speak or the institutional press’s right to publish.” This almost anti-press-establishment tone should not come as a surprise for people familiar with Scalia as he was known to repeatedly stray away from the conservative wing of the court on issues related to “fundamental individual rights,” but in this case, the “everyone” referred by the justice, means no other than corporations speaking through campaign funding, now better known as the money speech. | >
> | “It is passing strange…,” wrote Justice Scalia in his concurring opinion for the famous, or infamous Citizens United v. FEC, “... to interpret the phrase ‘the freedom of speech, or of the press’ to mean, not everyone’s right to speak or publish, but rather everyone’s right to speak or the institutional press’s right to publish.” This almost anti-press-establishment tone should not come as a surprise for people familiar with Scalia as he was known to repeatedly stray away from the conservative wing of the court on issues related to “fundamental individual rights,” but in this case, the “everyone” referred by the justice, means no other than corporations speaking through campaign funding, now better known as the money speech. | | | This ironic confluence of 1) languages seemingly showing deep sympathy toward broader protection for the more grass-root “press” under the freedom of press clause and 2) the stone-cold fact that under the veil of honoring individual rights, what is being protected is the alliance between big corporations and elected politicians hideously creating a tilted playground for themselves, I will argue, is not an exception, but something reflecting a more fundamental tendency of bigger corporate/political players taking advantage of fragmentation/atomization of social fabrics and the ensuing faltering of traditional forms of authorities.
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