Marxist AUT journalism lecturer, Dr Martin Hirst is still a bit touchy about this blog.
Apparently the bruised ego sustained in our mini blog war a few weeks ago has not quite healed.
Dr Hirst posted this little Marxist gem on his blog, Ethical Martini last Monday.
This is basically why bourgeois law is an ass. The first amendment to the US Constitution, which is widely heralded as the best protection of free speech anywhere on the planet is now officially a protection for politicians who lie during election campaigns.
I’m not sure this is exactly what the founding fathers had in mind, but it shows you just how far things are degenerating and at what speed.
The bourgoisie – the ruling class in a capitalist system – no longer has any use for free speech, it is in fact counter to their class interests – staying in control of the economy and politics.
Now pro-capital politicians can further cement their grip on power by blatantly lying during election campaigns, safe in the knowledge that they are merely acting in the American tradition of free speech. Bastards.
Evad Rehtona commented thus;
As a journalist, I am somewhat disappointed that a journalism lecturer is so sneeringly dismissive of free speech and the First Amendment.
But then, debate over recent days at the journz Yahoo group suggests a lot of working journalists believe in neither free speech nor the public’s right to know.
I wonder where they are learning that….
Dr Hirst graciously replied;
Another Dave, by any other name?
As a regular poster on New Zeal, what would you know about free speech?
I wonder if Dr Hirst would encourage his students to indulge in such gratuitous slurs?
Surely a senior journalist in Dr Hirst’s position should set a better example?
‘The bourgoisie ‘???!! wtf??
This is 2007 not 1917.
That this reactionary creature is a lecturer is a poor indictment on our education system.
EXOCET
Marty: back from Pyongyang already?
Did you miss us all that much?