The 'free speech' debate isn't about free speech

America doesn't have a free speech problem. It has a moral conflict problem.

Freedom of Speech.
(Image credit: Illustrated | xamtiw/iStock, laynabowers/iStock, Wikimedia Commons)

Hardly a week — and sometimes barely an hour — goes by without someone complaining loudly and earnestly about rampant violations of free speech marring American civic life.

The latest high-profile example is Tucker Carlson. Confronted by decade-old transcripts of Carlson calling into a right-wing radio show to express misogynistic views, the primetime Fox News host has defended himself as a martyr for free speech. As far as Carlson is concerned, Media Matters, the liberal muckraking outfit that unearthed and publicized the transcripts, is trying to silence him. But they cannot be allowed to succeed. Nothing less than freedom itself is at stake.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.