Megyn Kelly: Our First Amendment Canary
One thing that seems to annoy the Megyn Kelly haters: she has an infuriating tendency to get it right. When the Duke LaCrosse rape case smelled fishy it was Megyn who stood out from a compliant media to expose the holes in the case, and her reporting was ultimately vindicated. Several recent high-profile shooting incidents left legal “experts” like Lisa Bloom, Sonny Hostin, and that crowd with red faces when Ms. Kelly’s warnings of serious flaws in the prosecution cases turned out to be on point. And now, like the canary who signaled to coal miners that theis oxygen levels were dangerously low, Megyn Kelly is sounding an alarm to the people and the press over the chipping away at our right to free expression.
And someone in the mainstream media is noticing. Erik Wemple, an astute observer of The Cable Game and an equal opportunity critic, has published an extraordinary column documenting the vacillation and equivocation of the press corps—ordinarily defenders of the first Amendment but now suddenly squeamish. He indicts Chris Matthews, Donald Trump, Alisyn Camerota, Jake Tapper, Martha MacCallum, Greta van Susteren and more, some of the biggest personalities in The Cable Game, for implicitly proposing suppression of free speech (something they never did regarding “Piss Christ” or The Book of Mormon). And adds:
To her enduring credit, Fox News’s Megyn Kelly has been screaming all week about the folly of the “too-provocative” crowd.
To be sure, others in The Cable Game have expressed similar sentiments to Megyn’s, but few have been as outspoken, detailed, and unflappable as Ms. Kelly. And she’d not just picking on the competition. She faced down her FNC colleague Bill O’Reilly and lived to tell the tale (and continued the debate on her own program). No less a legal authority than Alan Dershowitz has applauded (rhetorically and literally) her stand for free speech. And her track record shows she has the gravitas to be taken seriously.
Megyn Kelly has sounded a warning: the first amendment’s oxygen supply is getting perilously thin. If anyone should stand up for unfettered free expression, it’s the press. How many will?
The Cable Game 
It’s rather unfortunate that Ms. Kelly spends all that time discussing the First Amendment when no one — and I mean no one — is disputing that Pamela Geller had a constitutionally protected right to hold the event.
Oh well. If it makes her conservative viewers happy and they keep coming back for more, who am I to judge? Ratings rule in cable news programming.
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“…and I mean no one — is disputing that Pamela Geller had a constitutionally protected right to hold the event.”
…BUT! That’s what, “and I mean no one” (everybody) added after sanctimoniously and nobly hailing Free Speech rights.
BUT! Gellar needs to shut up and submit to sharia blasphemy laws, eh?
Here’s another canary: Hillary’s Istanbul Process. She’s chaired one of 3 of its conferences. It’s to make making fun of religion (read:Islam) a crime. Submitting the 1st Amendment to sharia via HRC and her Muslim Sisterhood Chief of Staff.
http://tinyurl.com/8rujgcl
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BTW, just so my point is clear.
Many of these same conservatives who are defending Ms. Geller were some of the loudest critics of Larry David.
“Larry David Blasted for ‘Curb’ Episode Where He Urinates on Jesus Painting.”
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/10/28/catholic-league-blasts-larry-david-curb-episode-urinates-jesus/
So my point is:
We ought to be able to question the appropriateness of an ill-advised offensive depiction without it being conflated into an attack on free speech.
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Actually, Bill Donahue of the Catholic League, who is cited in your link, has not defended Pamela Geller at all. He was on with Neil Cavuto slamming her for insulting the Muslim religion. Which is like the exact opposite of what you suggest he had been saying.
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