Hustler Magazine v. Falwell Turns 26

From Kathy Shaidle, at Pajamas:

When it comes to even the most basic conceptions of free speech and robust public debate, 1988 might as well be 260 years ago, never mind twenty-six.

Kathy's talking about Mark Steyn's ridiculous defense against the morally (and financially) bankrupt climate hoax-ster Michael Mann. Her comparison is to Hustler Magazine's Larry Flint, who prevailed in court over the obviously hapless Jerry Falwell, and she writes:

A lot has changed since 1988.

Before Mark Steyn’s first brushes with the speech-chillers in 2008, I’d naively presumed — having come of age in the seventies and eighties created by Flynt and his fellow liberals (and seen the movie version of his case win great acclaim) — that every smart, right-thinking individual still felt that way.

Instead, I heard an endless stream of idiots — some of them in positions of authority, God help us — drag out today’s cliche of choice, that “you can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

I had the pleasure of watching Steyn using his rapier wit and knowledge of American history to crush a Toronto politico who foolishly employed that tired “argument.”

Yet what struck me was how unaffected this moron was by Steyn’s evisceration; he just droned on brainlessly for another minute or so.

(Amusingly, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who coined that idiotic “crowded theater” line, also famously wrote in a pro-eugenics argument that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Having watched David Zimmer sputter impotently and ignorantly while he questioned Steyn, I’m reluctantly inclined to agree that there really are altogether too many morons cluttering up the joint…)

Now, back to the Mann situation: one is supposedly guaranteed a jury of one’s peers, which in Steyn’s case is cause enough for pessimism.

But bear in mind that Steyn’s first judge was so stupid that she got the defendants mixed up.

In 1988, Flynt was the “liberal”/good guy and Falwell the “conservative” bad guy.

Today, in brain-dead, conformist, politically correct America, I fear Steyn will be viewed as the “Falwell” of the case even though he’s (technically) the “Flynt.”

Plus it was easy for Larry Flynt to play the outrageous, courageous “free speech” hero, and not just because he was, temperamentally, a daredevil and a brat.

In the first place, he was a millionaire many times over.

More at the link.

F-king leftist morons.