"They say I can't tell people to kill themselves
didn't know freedom of speech had limitations"
This is what Washington Redskins receiver, Jabar Gaffney said, after he tweeted what is pictured below to a taunting Cowboys fan after a Redskins loss:
First off, I don't really understand why a grown man would say that in such a permanent fashion. Does he not know by now that in this day and age, whatever you say on Twitter is going to read and copied and pasted? You can't get it back, ever. Once it's out there, it's out there.
But this post is about the bolded statement above. He claims that because of the reporting onslaught that occurred after his tweet, his freedom of speech was limited. But it wasn't. Freedom of speech only applies to government restraints on speech. No government entity told him he couldn't say that. He said it, and now he has to pay the consequences. There are plenty of rules like that in professional sports; in the NBA a player cannot bash on the officiating after the game without facing a fine, during the lockout players, coaches, and owners are not allowed to talk about the negotiations without facing fines, the list goes on.
But the government isn't limiting professional athletes' speech. It's the bargain they make for the millions of dollars they earn. They can say whatever they want, but they will have to deal with the consequences. Clearly, Gaffney didn't write a great perilous times paper.
If his use of grammar was as masterful in his papers as it is in his tweet I'm sure he didn't pass English with flying colors either.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between public and private limits on conduct is one that I have seen many people fail to understand. I have multiple times had to explain to people why when I say that I can't believe they let Rush Limbaugh stay on air I am not expressing the opinion that the government should take his program off the air, because that would not be constitutional, but that I don't think the owner of the station should continue to pay him to speak on their station. That is very much up to the discretion of the owner.
This however, was a pretty massive misunderstanding of civil liberties. Nice find.
I'd have to agree with Hayley on this one. He may be able to play ball, but he clearly is not he most eloquent speaker.
ReplyDeleteGaffney also seems to have confused the difference between "can" and "should". Under the constitution, yes, he can say whatever he wants (with in reason- no shouting fire!), but that doesn't mean people will just merrily accept whatever he has to say. Not only did he moronically post this on the internet, but he is also a public figure, and didn't say to himself: "hmm this might make people a little mad". He has absolutely every right to say what he said, but he can't expect people to be okay with it just because he has "free speech". Nobody is saying he can't say it, we're all just saying he's an idiot.