speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

The Poverty of Civil Libertarianism
recognised Mickey Mouse! 11 Research also connects alcohol advertising
to drinking and death. Urging a ban on advertisements suggesting
that you can raise your athletic, social or professional status
by your choice of drink, the Washington State Medical Association
noted that 32 per cent of fatal car accidents among 16-20-year-olds
involved a driver whose blood alcohol exceeded 0.1 per cent. When
the ex-director of the New York State Division of Alcoholism and
Alcohol Abuse criticised Anheuser Busch for telling youth that its
beer was served at 87 per cent of "the parties your parents would
never attend," the company responded: "No one has ever been able
to establish a clear link between alcohol abuse and advertising." The
company undercut this disclaimer, however, by boasting to shareholders
that its market share had increased during a period when
beer consumption declined significantly. 12
///. The Imperative of State Regulation
Many governments own or control the media and use their pervasive
economic and political power to suppress dissent. Liberal democracies
declare their respect for freedom of speech but still regulate it in
myriad ways. Since respected judges, lawyers, and legal scholars,
have given an absolutist interpretation to the First Amendment's
cryptic declaration that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging
the freedom of speech" I will stress American examples in arguing
that state regulation is inescapable. The question is not whether to
regulate but what and when.
The civil libertarian position has to account for many disconcerting
exceptions. Although defamation is only supposed to punish
after the fact, Peter Matthiessen's book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
was forced out of print when his publisher was sued by those he
accused of framing American Indian Movement leader Leonard
Peltier in the 1975 killing of two FBI agents. 13 Robert Maxwell was
notorious for suing anyone who mentioned him—even for drawing
parallels between his physiognomy or headgear and that of real or
fictitious criminals; his death terminated a hundred libel actions.
Unable to suppress a 1988 biography, he frightened many booksellers
out of stocking it. 14 American courts have prohibited release
of the tapes of the Challenger disaster out of respect for the privacy of
the astronauts' families. States forbid the identification of rape
victims and juvenile accused, and judges close trials to press and
public. 15 Victims of hurtful words can sue for intentional infliction of
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