Tacit censorship is especially bad for those who live inside the nation's jails and prisons. As a practical matter, the nearly 2 million people behind bars in this country rarely have direct access to the public's eyes or ears. We don't expect to see them exercising their First Amendment rights on television or hear them expressing their views on the radio, or see their websites for that matter. He neglected to mention freedom to be heard. In the here and now, theoretical assurances about freedom of speech are presumed to suffice.
Politicians mouth the requisite platitudes.
Generally, we nod in agreement or nod off in boredom. Facing the wrath of corporate America and government agencies, the insurgent hackers now making headlines are living dangerously. Their slight interference with the rights of corporations to be widely heard is a definite no-no. Too bad we haven't been able to summon such outrage against the social order's continual interference with the rights of poor people to be heard by the public. In effect, a price tag is dangling from the First Amendment.