Free speech, or something

ESPN personage Sage Steele is suing the company for violating her constitutional right to free speech, something that's all the rage these days among folks of a certain political bent. Whether her suit has legs, or is just another case of those folks playing the pretend persecution card, remains to be seen.

OK, first off: The Blob agrees with nothing Steele said on Jay Cutler's podcast last fall, which she claims led to retaliation by ESPN.

But, second off, it also hopes Steele shakes down the company for every penny she can get if ESPN indeed did what she claims it did. 

This is not to say Steele's comments weren't ridiculous. They were. For instance: She said, in the middle of a pandemic that has killed a million Americans so far, that ESPN's requirement she be vaccinated was "scary" and "sick." She also wondered why Barack Obama identified as black when he was raised by his white mother and her parents. And women who didn't want to be subjected to inappropriate comments in the workplace should, you know, dress differently.

Silly, all of it. A private company has every right to protect its employees any way it sees fit during a public health crisis; it's not some some Boston Tea Party liberty deal. And Obama identifies as black because, duh, white America identifies him as black, in sometimes disgusting ways. And is Steele really going to go there with the whole she-shouldn't-have-dressed-that-way absolution of oinker men who weren't raised right?

Steele claims, because of all that, she was suspended by ESPN, denied plum assignments and subjected to ridicule and shunning by her fellow employees. But the picture is much fuzzier than it appears.

ESPN claims, first of all, she was never suspended, but was sidelined for awhile when she contracted Covid and was quarantined. And she did, in fact, continue to get assignments when she returned, though how choice they were remains open to interpretation. And the criticism from colleagues could be seen as merely them exercising their right to free speech.

Which is where those folks of a certain political bent get a little fuzzy on the concept themselves. More and more they seem to think free speech means being able to say any outrageous thing that comes into their heads without debate. Anyone who disputes them -- Hey, that's nuts, and here's why -- is framed as an enemy of free speech who's trying to "silence" them.

Of course, by saying that, they're trying to silence their critics.  Which the Blob suspects is what oligarchs like Elon Musk are after when they buy social media platforms like Twitter -- despite (in Musk's case at least), all their blather about "free speech."

You should be able to say anything you want in this country without fear of retribution. Sage Steele is right about that.

But without fear of someone else saying you're full of it?

Sorry. Those groceries ain't for sale.