AFT Anti-Trump ad

The HuffPost recently posted an article about Fox News rejecting an anti-Trump ad from the AFT. When I read the article, it reminded me of the series I wrote about freedom of speech. In fact, I've already addressed this very issue. I have decided to bring it up again.

Freedom of speech should not be interpreted as a mandate for anyone to say something that they don't approve. Fox News has no obligation to air an advertisement if they don't believe it. With news agencies, they provide a degree of flexibility to advertisers. Even with this flexibility, all news agencies have limitations to what they are willing to air.

What drives me nuts about this particular dispute is a quote from Randi Weingarten, the president of the AFT.

“There are great journalists who work at Fox News, but it seems executives want to pick and choose how to apply the First Amendment when it comes to brave teachers telling the truth about who’s to blame for the current chaos of school re-openings. What is Fox afraid of? We need resources and supports to keep our students safe as we reopen. People should know who is and isn’t helping."

I want to emphasize that she brought up the First Amendment. Most of my discussions surrounding free speech have focused more on ethics than constitutionality. I want to make one thing clear. It is absolutely absurd to bring up the First Amendment in this situation.

Again, freedom of speech is not a mandate for anyone to say something that they don't believe. We can't say that because freedom of speech is constitutionally protected we have to control what someone else has to say. News outlets frequently allow advertisements that don't reflect the views of the agencies, but all of them have limits to what messages can be pushed on their platforms.

It gets worse. Check out Randi Weingarten's Twitter account sometime. She frequently insists that she knows what she's talking about because she was a civics teacher. I'm going to counter that argument with something that will make her and the AFT look bad. Randi Weingarten was a civics teacher.

That's right. Randi Weingarten has been responsible for teaching children about civics. We know she has an absurd viewpoint on the First Amendment that completely defies common sense. What else did she get wrong? More importantly, is this really the kind of person who should be in a position to manipulate the views of children and future voters?