Pete Santilli is a new media journalist who broadcasts on YouTube and streaming internet radio. He is brash, controversial, rude, and he is completely within his rights to be so. He has a radio show titled “Telling the Truth… Whether You Like It or Not.” He goes against the grain of some, and the efforts by various groups to define certain types of speech as illegal is exactly what he is fighting against. Hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, incendiary speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech and more are all protected by our 1st amendment, yet they being challenged as being illegal. And in many cases the government is supporting that view and carving out areas where free speech will not be accepted. Of course limiting free speech to special “acceptable” areas is no free speech at all. But if these limitations are not challenged, the right of free speech could very well disappear.
Santilli exercised his right of free speech recently, and he is sitting in jail now for his efforts. He will no doubt be released as soon as a lawyer is found who will fight for Santilli’s basic right to express himself, but the damage will be done. The government will have made its point that they will limit your speech if they choose, and you will have to be willing to pay a price in order to exercise your rights. If they do this enough, people will no doubt give up because the government has unlimited resources and power to bully the public into silence, but individuals do not usually have the resources to fight back.
See what got Santilli thrown in jail on page 2:
Michael Graham, a local talk show host, wasn’t allowed entry into an immigration rally being held at a local school football field as part of the news media because ,in the minds of the people guarding the front gate, he didn’t have enough identification. This, even though he had his radio station creditentials hanging around his neck and his valid Georgia driver license. Can’t get into an immigration rally w/o ID but you can vote etc. w/o one. The inmates are running the asylum. He eventually was allowed in after the cops arrived and told the gate people that they couldn’t stop him from attending.
Where do you get this nonsnese from?
Freedom of speech disappeared when the federal judicial system created the crime of “hate” speech. In this they control what can and cannot be said due to the possible “offense” to others. This was created to go along with the “violation of civil rights” crimes as a way to control people and get around the law that prohibits the prosecution of a person twice for the same crime. And the ACLU is only concerned about high profile cases relating to the supposed persecution of minorities.
We own that land but somebody wants to give it to just a select few individuals it seems.
Gene Grubbs keep drinking the kool aid !!
what they are saying is that Pete Sentelli called for people to join them at the refuge and to bring their guns if they have them. That’s when he stopped being a journalist and became part of the occupation.
If that guy were Black, nobody would have said$#%&!@*
Freedom of speech is not an excuse for being dumb and obnoxious. Participating in the protest and then crying”journalist” when you get arrested is not why they put freedom of speech in the constitution.
conservatives scream about their freedoms being taken away when it is something the want,but they sure don’t mind taking away the freedom to be treated equal if you are gay,muslim,etc, or a woman’s right of choice over her own body,newsflash,rethugs,you can’t have it all,everyone is entitled to their right’s, don’t want your right’s taken away? THEN STOP TRYING TO TAKE AWAY EVERYONES RIGHTS THAT DON”T BELIEVE AS YOU DO,THAT IS CALLED EQUAL RIGHTS,NOT JUST REPUBLICAN RIGHTS,DUMBASS
This is just wrong and the law is wrong.