Free Speech Defended (and Tasered) Everywhere

This could also be known as the requisite "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" update. I watched Tucker Carlson — Tucker Carlson, of all people — defend Andrew Meyer, the kid who got Tasered at the Kerry event. And Carlson, along with plenty of other people who watched the footage of Meyer being held down by 6 cops while they pumped 50,000 volts into him and were disgusted by it, are right: it is strange and seems far, far out of line.

The Chron's Julie Mason points to a few other recent instances of free speech being bedeviled in one way or another, whether by presidential advance manual decree or by Fox's Emmy censors who went after Sally Field. Mason asks the fundamental question: what's going on?

Free speech is a precious thing and invariably there's always someone who would like it to go away, as there is also always someone who thinks it is in far more danger of subjugation than it probably is. The recent trends bother me, as they do Mason. Andrew Meyer getting Tasered is a bad deal, and shouldn't have happened. What will be more interesting for all of us with a vested interest in free speech — and that would be everyone — will be what happens to Meyer and the cops in the aftermath of the incident. I do think, though, that the Meyer incident is more of a bellwether than Sally Field's anti-war acceptance speech getting censored by Fox or the presidential advance manual including directions for rousting protestors. I expect those things to happen, even thought it would be better if they didn't.