Free speech again under local assault

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:22 PM PDT ∞

Free speech is rarely popular, at least not in practice. Oh, we all like to pay it lip service -- liberals and conservatives, and the rest of us in the middle. Everyone loves free speech in the abstract.

But what we really like is free speech for us, and not so much for the next person over.

And when their free speech bugs us, our inclination has always been and will likely always remain to try to find a way to shut them up.

We're civilized, of course, and because of the fact that we like to think we believe in free speech, we rarely resort to out-and-out violence -- it's simply not seemly to punch someone in the nose because you don't like what they say.

So you pass a law or launch an investigation. Make them uncomfortable.

In Vista, the Planning Commission has proposed a law (tinyurl.com/32wmcn) banning all sorts of signs that local businesses use to try to attract customers, anything falling under the description of "inflatable" or a "pennant."

I'll grant you that inflatable gorillas may not be to everyone's taste, but if they didn't work at attracting customers, business owners wouldn't be laying out good coin to rent or buy them.

Besides, not every business would be covered by the ban: Auto dealers would still be able to apply for a permit to use inflatable signs.

Which seems a bit unfair and not a little discriminatory. If the piano store can't use an inflatable sign, why should the car dealer?

The justification for the proposed ban is the usual argument of trying to beautify the city, the implied argument being that pennants and inflatable signs are an eyesore.

But the Founding Fathers of our country didn't put anything about beautification in the Constitution, nor have any of the amendments addressed it.

Free speech, though, that's covered.

Which is a point that could probably use a bit of emphasis when it comes to KPBS, the local public radio and TV station.

KPBS-TV has a program called "Editors Roundtable" every Friday, in which editors of various local media outlets appear in front of the cameras and talk about how their publications and the media in general are covering various local stories. It could be seen as a bit dry at times if you're not a news junkie, I suppose, but I do think it's useful for the public to see how the sausage we call a newspaper is made. The Times' editor, Kent Davy, and one of our managing editors, Dan McSwain, have been guests on the show, and I presume they will be again.

Or maybe not.

As columnist Randy Dotinga reports in today's Preview section, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre has launched an investigation into how KPBS decides whom to invite to the "Editors Roundtable," among other programming decisions. While KPBS is a publicly owned station (operated by San Diego State University), it's hard to see how a public radio station would have any less editorial independence than courts have repeatedly ruled public university student newspapers have.

While KPBS is a professional operation, and not student-run (although it does offer numerous intern and training opportunities for SDSU students), its staff nevertheless have a basic constitutional right to invite whomever they want as guests on-air.

And they don't need permission from any public official to do so.

-- Contact columnist Jim Trageser at (760) 631-6628 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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