“This is the price we pay for freedom!” There was a time when that statement would give me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside. But that was a time when there were different rules of engagement for political dialog, as well as a very different system for the dissemination of information to the masses. From both the right of me and the left of me, I hear cautions about not changing the way we allow people to speak “freely” across the vast new information highway, as well as the new unregulated “talk radio” and 24 hour cable news. Announcers across the spectrum of Broadcast Television and Radio are careful not to say the seven words George Carlin listed in his 1972 monologue of dirty words “You Can Never Say on Television.” I find it very curious that people tiptoe around these seven so called obscenities while ignoring the hypocrisy of doing so in the shadow of unbridled slanderous, outright false dialog we allow at the peril of our democracy. 

If a rule about not speaking these seven obscenities on broadcast radio and TV can survive a challenge to the Supreme Court, then why can we not have some kind of rule about “not deliberately broadcasting knowingly false information?” There was a time in my lifetime that simple respect for civility seemed to contain the most egregious violations of what many religious people would call “bearing false witness.” But now that we have lived without the “Fairness Doctrine” for more than two decades, perhaps it was a little bit of self-regulation combined with the fairness of a level playing field.  

I can find many different words to describe the current unacceptable situation I see in public discourse. Anarchy, lawlessness, chaos, confusion, willful ignorance, disrespect, vitriol. But the most egregious violation of simple human decency for me , is the fact that all of this is being deliberately orchestrated through the manipulation of access to the airwaves. When I was a child we were told the airwaves belonged to us, “the people!” My name is not Rupert Murdoch, nor is it Clear Channel or Comcast! My name is not Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity! Parity and equality do not exist in broadcasting when it comes to getting to the truth. One side holds the advantage, and unfortunately that side has crossed a line that is way beyond the realm of decency or fairness.

So please do not tell me this is the price we pay for freedom!! The price has become way too high! Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. That responsibility includes telling the truth and taking responsibility for the consequences when you do not tell the truth. There are ways to rectify our current problems without trampling on the First Amendment! But that will only be possible when we have the ability to have a real dialog based on rational critical thinking. I am not hopeful that it will happen as long as the deck is stacked in favor of one side over the other. This is only one of a variety of Catch 22s that plague our current culture and politics! And the biggest challenge is to create change peacefully, without the kind of violence that is inherent when people lose hope.