America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. At least that’s what we tell ourselves before every major sporting event, as we stand up from our stadium seats and take off our baseball caps to sing the national anthem.
But, how free are we? Take communication for example. How free are Americans to speak? How much does the First Amendment protect?
In 1942 the Supreme Court ruled that pure commercial speech is not fully protected by the First Amendment. Since then, advertising has been closely watched for deception – anything that is false or misleading.
Interestingly enough, political speech is fully protected by the First Amendment. So political advertising can legally be false or misleading. A candidate can say anything he or she wants to about an opponent without legal repercussions. The theory is that the truth will come out in the end, and by limiting political speech, it will limit the marketplace of ideas.
Australians feel differently. Down Under, the Aussies believe that political speech should be censored. Candidates are libel if they make a false statement about an opponent. The country's government believes that people are indeed rational, but the public must be making rational decisions about politicians based on truthful information, not lies.
In the U.S. a false attack ad could run so close to an election that there's no time for the other candidate to rebuttal. Thus, the public could make their decision to vote for someone based on false information.
To me, it’s a scary thing that U.S. citizens could possibly be choosing their next president based on an intentionally misleading television commercial. Is the Land of the Free allowing too much freedom in the political realm?
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