Fake News for Big Brother

[FB`]

On Wed, April 30, 2003 10:28 AM, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 11:09:29AM +0200, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
> > On Tue, 29 Apr 2003, Nomen Nescio wrote:
> > > Needless to say, nothing could be further from the letter and spirit
> > > of the First Amendment.
> >
> > I thought the Constitution applies to personal speech, not to corporate
or
> > government speech...
> >
> > If I speak for myself, the First Amendment applies.
> >
> > But should it apply even to corporations? Are such entities considered
to
> > be persons? Should they have "rights"?
> >
>    I don't believe that corporations do have rights, or at least they
certainly
> shouldn't. There is a case before the Supreme Court as we speak about
whether
> Nike has a right to freedom of speech. Hopefully they will say no, which
would
> end corporate political contributions, the bane of our current political
> situation.
>    However, along with freedom of speech, there is also a First Amendment
> "freedom of the press" as well, so the press, including newspapers, can
print
> anything they want unless it's libel.

Which would lead to the question of why would (Nike) not just have "(Nike)
News" - a newspaper or similar entity, completely hand-assed.

The distinction between the press and non-press would appear to be difficult
to define in anything like legally binding terms anyhow. (Not that I'd
know.)

FB`