CNN.com - Internet firm sues to broadcast McVeigh execution - April 5, 2001

[Jim Choate]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> Logically, it is only your speech if you can stop "saying" it
> at any time. I doubt he could stop his execution by asking nicely.

But he's under coercion. Legitimate or not, that changes the rules of the
game. He's the accussed. He can elect others to speak for him in
situations where he can't speak for himself.

Your thesis breaks down into,

Your right to speak exists only so long as you can willingly stop/start
it. So by logical extension, the suppression of speech in a 'control
economy' culture such as the ex-CCCP is justified. That in fact, once one
looses the freedom of speech they may in fact never LEGITIMATELY regain
it. That the 'choice' is constrained is an irrelevant factor.

Foo.

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