Thanks, Dick, and thanks to all of you for being here tonight. I know we have some stiff competition for your attention this evening. Which is why I’m glad to tell you that we have gone to elaborate lengths to keep you informed of the score of tonight’s ALCS game.
Permit me to talk very briefly about a favorite subject: As Dick noted earlier, this is National Freedom of Speech Week. And it’s a good thing.
The Media Institute was privileged to be the moving party, along with the NABEF, in the launch of NFSW two years ago, and we are now sort of the chief impresario and lion tamer of this unique production.
As everyone in this room knows, it is the Speech Clause of the First Amendment that distinguishes the media from all other industries. And it is the First Amendment that safeguards the press from the incursions of government and politicians.
It is our hope that, through NFSW, the guarantee of freedom of speech may be celebrated more widely and more uniformly. Because the simple truth is that unless people at large recognize and revere their own speech rights, they will never fully appreciate those of reporters and artists.
By the same token, if free speech means anything, it means the protection of all speech. As Noam Chomsky has said: "If you’re in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for those views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech."
Sorry to say, contrary views pop up even within policymaking circles today, as people inside and outside of Congress advocate the return of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, and independent political speech is circumscribed by law as "electioneering communications."
It goes without saying that we don’t believe that the creation of National Freedom of Speech Week will, by itself, set all things right. But we do believe that it’s a sound idea - and one that in time may become a catalyst for lots of creative thought about this most precious of our freedoms.
Which is why, in conclusion, I’d like to thank those people and organizations in this room - too numerous to mention - who have signed on as NFSW "partners." The full list of all such continues to grow, and can be found online at freespeechweek.org.
And finally, I want to thank and congratulate tonight’s keynote speaker and awardees. We are honored to be able to recognize them in this way.