After all, freedom of the press requires you to own some means of media production to do you any good.
MONEY, by definition, is a medium that can be exchanged for goods and services and is used as a measure of their values in the market. We are taught that the value of some things, such as our integrity as individuals, our privacy, and our right to free expression, cannot be expressed in monetary terms.
But in the United States today, we apply this principle inconsistently -- and generally in ways that undermine democracy and favor wealthy people and special interests.
The US Supreme Court, in its 1976 decision in the case Buckley v. Valeo, essentially concluded that free expression can be counted in dollars. Money spent to influence elections, the court concluded, is a form of constitutionally protected free speech.
Most of the money raised by candidates goes toward gaining access to the public airways; candidates for president spend 60 percent or more of their campaign money on television and radio ads. All this money is spent as if Rupert Murdoch and billionaires like him owned the airwaves. But it is really you who own the airwaves. All licensed TV and radio stations are defined by law as public trustees, committed to serve the public interest during eight-year terms. These broadcasters are just granted use on your spectrum, for which they pay nothing.
In reality, commercial TV and radio stations are also businesses that primarily sell advertising, including campaign ads, for profit. Perhaps this is what the court really means when it said that money is free speech. If you have enough money you can get an exclusive free license to speak on public airwaves.
Other Western democracies presume political speech and access to airwaves are priceless. So France, for example, requires all media to provide an equal forum to all candidates, if it is provided to one. Free access to broadcasting's mass audiences is wholly consistent with democracy and the public interest. Moreover, the FCC already has sufficient authority to make this a condition to hold an otherwise free broadcast license as a public trust. Without the requirement to spend huge amounts of money to access instant mass audiences, candidates could instead focus on issues of concern to the American people, and the cost of elections would decrease.
But perhaps the United States instead will continue to act as if basic rights can be bought, sold, and owned. President Bush is on record saying that we ought to create an "ownership society." If so, we ought to go all the way. Let's do that by giving individuals a property right in their own names and personal identifiable information.
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