Free Speech, 2014-Style

I always watch ‪#‎SNL‬ otherwise I would never see local tv here in Raleigh. I’ve of course heard about the political ads this cycle but watching them one after another… just awful. Even the local races are absolutely insane! And I guess they are this bad all over the country.

I was addressing a group of people the other day and I took a question about our opponent’ ads, which at that point I had not seen. A visitor from Italy asked me how they got away with saying such terrible things about Senator Hagan without getting in trouble. I told him we have the First Amendment and she’s a public figure, so you can pretty much say whatever you want and it doesn’t even have to be true. He said in Italy saying things like that about a public official would land you in jail, even if it was true, even if it wasn’t on television.

So we have it pretty good. Even if it means we have to put up with ads like the one I just saw calling the local DA a baby killer. Complete with a cartoon baby.