Freedom of Speech

1999-2022 | 23 years

The first episode of the West wing is quick on the pickup, and within the first few minutes introduces us to the show’s main characters: the President’s staff. Throughout the episode, they work on a mass incoming immigration from Cuba and try to fix their relationship with prominent religious figures because of something offensive Josh said on TV.

Towards the end of the episode, CJ, Josh, and Toby are in a meeting with Reverend Al Caldwell, John Van Dyke, and Mark Marsh, arguing about the First Amendment and First commandment. The President then enters and is asked, “If our children can buy pornography on any street corner for five dollars, isn't that too high a price to pay for free speech?”

The President then immediately responds “No.”

Toby shortly there-after points out that they are, “not empowered to auction off the Bill of Rights.”

The idea of free speech is often hotly debated. Today, there are currently ongoing debates about Media Censorship. One example of this is in Texas, where they passed a law allowing individuals who live in Texas and the State of Texas to sue social media companies who censor users based on their viewpoint or geographic region. The Supreme court then ruled to block the law.

This situation is very complex as both sides are trying to use their right to free speech. While social media companies believe it is their first amendment given right to control the content on their platforms, the people who use those platforms believe that censorship by these companies is taking away their right to free speech.

On the one hand what if the people who were spreading false information were in charge, how would true information about things such as the benefits of masks and vaccines be able to spread? In the war between Russia and Ukraine, we can see what happens when the social media platforms and flow of information are controlled by the government. There the courts have banned Facebook and Instagram for “extremist activities”. They also passed a law criminalizing “false information”, no longer allowing Russians to upload to TikTok. They have also cracked down on independent news outlets and television outlets. In Russia, where many people have. Relatives in Ukraine, many believe that the Ukrainian government is made up of Nazis and that they are liberating Ukraine. The Russian government has also spread the false belief that Ukraine has been committing genocide against Russian-speaking people in the East of Ukraine.

On the other hand, these companies stopping the spread of hateful speech and false information could save lives. What can happen when the internet is not censored can be seen in shootings, many of whom get racist ideas such as “replacement theory” from the internet, where these ideas are allowed to freely circulate. When people are exposed to these racist violent ideas online, they often act on them violently, with the cost of these open platforms being deadly.

In the episode, although it is a time before the internet and social media were mainstream, there were still radical groups. The President asks Reverend Caldwell to denounce a fringe group called the lambs of God, who sent his 12-year-old granddaughter a Raggedy Anne doll with a knife stuck through its throat because she had done an interview with a teen magazine talking about her ideas on a women’s right to choose.

The episode shows both the good and bad of free speech, illustrating that while free speech is important and necessary, it can have drastic consequences, suggesting people in prominent positions should try to use their own freedom of speech to stop violence.