The editorial board of the NYT made it clear the other day it thinks America has a free speech problem. Of course, all the usual suspects agree with that grim assessment. The Onion, however, begs to differ. They point out our country was founded by an elite which used the media at that time to spoon feed the masses with their viewpoints. As the satirical news site points out, that "legacy is now in tatters".
As usual, there is more truth in the Onion's editorial opinion than meets the eye. With the rise of social medial and the 24 hour cable news cycle, viewpoints have replaced facts in many corners of the internet as well as cable and newspapers. As one wag has pointed out, "You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts".
The biggest threat to democracy as far as I can tell is many of us cannot agree on facts. In the absence of that agreement, debate becomes impossible and free speech an oxymoron.
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