Freedom of Speech a Vague Memory

By Voice Over Artist, Marty Daniels · Leave a Comment

Twitter has essentially committed suicide…that is what the headline read on The Drudge Report tonight and I get it. I do! With Twitters new policy they essentially make the speech and ideas shared on their site to be consistent with the level of free speech in the nations those people live in.

This is total BS. The internet until now has been a place to freely share ideas, thoughts, concepts and information that may very well not have been able to be shared in the country where the information originates from. Look at how the middle east is changing, dictators being overthrown and that all happened through TWITTER which was used as a communication tool to help establish rallying points and spread other information by these groups.

It’s not such a big deal at this point because I live in America and we supposedly have a strong history of FREE SPEECH…not entirely true. What we actually have is a strong history of talking about the idealistic notion that we have the freedom of speech and expression..that is unless you really disagree with something and then you are shoved in any ridiculous narrowly defined camp so you are minimized. Not that that has happened to me at all.

Odd that on the same frontpage of the Drudge Report that talked about Twitters apparent social suicide they also sited a report that labeled the United States as the 47th listed nation for Journalistic Freedom…47th. Look I was in radio for 15+ years and I remember when the Reagan appointed FCC started to deregulate the radio industry. It is that exact measure that RUINED radio and gave fewer voices on the AM/FM dial and allowed organizations to manipulate the press even further then it had. Every Administration since then has done nothing but handcuff the media and media members by allowing legalized monopolies.

don’t believe me?

go from town to town, heck, you can do it on your iPod or Droid…listen to any format of station from anywhere in the United States and I don’t care if the station is in Birmingham or Boston, the content sounds exactly the same…EXACTLY.

There needs to be a new voice given to the communities of the United States and around the world. These voices need to have a purpose to create communication and dialogue in their communities, not simply have an agenda and push it out there until all the heads are nodding and all the eyes are glassed over. Let the stations be a forum of debate and conversation. Obviously we will not see that on many AM/FM stations, those days are gone…but can we find it on the internet????

For now, I think so.

How do you think we can better use the internet to help make up the ground we have lost in the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression arenas?

Write your comments below!