What If All Voices Were Silenced

The back and forth controversy that media holds specific responsibilities is inevitable, and now the question is should media represenatives be able to announce publications in the form of politics? Personall, I don't believe so, but they are. Politicians try to frame issues and events to influence the "spin" that the media will give to their story, such as Miss Jessica Lynch and her "heroic" fairytale story. It's not fare that the media has the power to influence the public opinion when the media itself is based on politics therefore sending a "redirected" media feed/message and not allowing the public to know the accurate truth. This minimizes our freedom to believe and speak upon situations.

Now freedom of speech implies that we are able to inherent human right to voice one’s opinion publicly without fear of punishment or censorship. So why don’t we all just speak our minds, we’re able we? Apparently not. Natalie Maines had decided to speak her mind on the President of the United States, George Bush, at the time that 9/11 had been taking place. Natalie had said “I am ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas”. Is that wrong of her to say how she feels to the public? To her fans? I personally don’t think so. Freedom of speech is suppose to allow you to speak freely of what you feel and believe and not have any consequences. Natalie however had many consequence. The Dixie Chicks, one of the most famous girl groups ever, was banned from many radio stations, they couldn’t play, they were threatened, they lost many fans, they couldn’t go out without being called names, even television broadcasters were calling them names such as “bimbos” and saying that “they should be slapped around”. In what state of mind would anyone think that this is okay, to treat an equal who was only following something that she knew was okay to do, like they should be six feet under? And then later to find out that what she was saying about the war and what he was doing was true, so all of this controversy was created over something that was eventually seen true by the public eye. Freedom of speech is free, and our society should really show and reflect upon that.