Adding another name to a long list

Jeffrey Lord is a columnist for the American Spectator and was a CNN commentator.  Until he sent out a tweet that a lot of people found offensive.  Here is that tweet, at the end of the exchange it was part of:

Rather than delete his reply in the wake of CNN having fired him, Lord has stridently defended his actions at mocking what he considers fascism. 

This began when Lord wrote a piece for the American Spectator in which he described a call by Media Matters for people to boycott advertisers who buy time on the Sean Hannity program on the Fox News Channel.  Here s an excerpt from the piece:

"The objective of Media Matters (and let’s stop with the camouflage and from now on call them what they really are, MMF — Media Matters Fascists), clearly, is to re-write the First Amendment so it will now be modeled after Fascist Italy’s Ministero della Cultura Popolare — Mussolini’s Ministry of Popular Culture. The Ministry was in turn modeled after the Nazi Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Both Mussolini and Hitler’s aim was as simple as it was sinister: to control the flow of information whether that meant broadcast, newspapers, books, films and all the rest of any outlets that were vehicles of the day for the free expression of ideas."

Like so many others, Mr. Lord clearly does not grasp the actual meaning of the First Amendment, even though he actually quoted it just before the paragraph excerpted above.  Mr. Lord, Media Matters is not a government agency, nor is it any part of any level of government.

The First Amendment does not protect what Sean Hannity or anyone else says from being subject to the criticism; and yes boycott of, any private citizen or group of citizens.  An example of true fascism would be government attempting to stop Media Matters, or Sean Hannity or even Mr. Lord from expressing their thoughts, feelings, opinions and anything else; within the limits of how our freedom of speech works.  You cannot shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, unless of course there is actually a fire occurring.

To try to paint a boycott as Fascist is dishonest.  Hobby Lobby refuses to provide contraception as part of their health insurance coverage.  As a result I will never spend even one cent of my money with any Hobby Lobby business.  That's my right.  I am not infringing Hobby Lobby's First Amendment rights in doing so.

Add Mr. Lord's name to the long list of people who accuse people of violating the First Amendment rights of others; when they have done no such thing.