I’ve received two messages concerning comment sections on blogs. The first one asked that I add a comment section on FREE WHITEWATER, and the second message contended that one could not advocate coherently a free speech position without a comments section beneath each post.
I’ll address both points in turn.
The first asks if I’ll add a comments section. Many blogs, of all types, have comments sections. It’s something I may add to this small website. For now, though, I’ll follow the example of Cato@Liberty, the blog of the Cato Institute, and forego comments.
The second email that I received contends that one cannot blog in defense of free expression without including a comments section. I consider that contention slight and easily refuted.
Here’s why. The right of free expression is a right against interference in speech; it’s not an entitlement to the private property of others. Just as a newspaper can exercise discretion (sensible or otherwise) in publishing stories, a magazine, blog, editorial page, etc., can exercise unfettered discretion over its own content.
That discretion may illicit elicit criticism, but the discretion itself is no violation of free speech.
That a man may own a car does not obligate him to run a taxi service.
Just as a paper may lawfully select which stories to print, it may be criticized or praised on that point without a legal obligation to print on any given topic. (I have criticized the Register more than once, but I do not believe — at all — that they have a legal obligation to print any given topic.)
When the Nation (progressive) published from the left, Buckley did not expect that he was entitled to space in that publication. Instead, he exercised his right to free speech by founding National Review.
Speech was advanced in the process — the Nation covers topics from the left, and Buckley gave the right a magazine of its own.
They are great opinion magazines; this is a small opinion blog. There are a world of similar blogs, in Wisconsin and beyond.