Free Speech

A story concerning billboards blaming Democrats for 9/11 has raised the issue of free speech in "advertising" at Democracy Forums. What amuses me are that the responses are entirely political. This is a free speech issue, but the discussion has turned to political sniping.

Buck Laser responded,

"Let it stay for as long as he can afford it. It only hurts republicans".

Webwarrior wrote,

"It shows the mentality of the republican party. They can't run on the issues and they sure can run on their true agenda (the advancement of big oil, cooperate America and millionaires) so they resort to fearmongering, it's worked quite well for them, Americans aren't the brightest of people, look at the retard they call a president".

This all seems a bit illogical in my opinion. What is at issue here is free speech. Should these billboards be allowed to exist. People arguing for Free Speech would say yes. Now, as free speech is a civil liberty, Democrats typically support it, but they won't say so without making sure to characterize the ads as "Republican" and "fear mongering", which is utterly disingenuous.