Free Speech for Me, but Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other.

• Author: Smith, Bradley L.

With Free Speech for Me - But Not for Thee, Nat Hentoff(1) joins a growing number of critics decrying the resurgence of censorship in education, government, and mainstream society.(2) Hentoff collects approximately fifty examples, ranging from journalists and educators who cleanse their colleagues' texts of oppression or verbal violence (pp. 55-62) to Professor Catharine MacKinnon's bizarre alliance with religious fundamentalists that would outlaw expression that sexually subordinates women (pp. 336-55). Some of the examples are famous, some obscure, but regardless of whether the incidents he describes have attracted public attention, Hentoff typically expands upon the factual renditions by exploring the perspectives of the actors involved. Employing his skills as a newspaper columnist, Hentoff subjects the censors to libertarian scrutiny and discloses the interest-group politics that drive the suppression.

Hentoff's greatest asset, his ability to enliven the often predictable ingredients of these cases, ineluctably produces a prejudiced analysis. Like Justice Hugo Black, Hentoff is by all appearances a free speech absolutist, routinely dismissing arguments for censorship peremptorily and refusing to give credence to the humanitarian or egalitarian motives that underlie them.(3) When he does acknowledge meritorious reasons for restricting expression in a case, he usually ridicules the reasoning as hypocritical, warns of dire results, and subordinates any potentially legitimate reasons for restricting expression beneath the higher ideals of a free and open society.

This book is not a polemic in the style of Rush Limbaugh, however. Hentoff distinguishes his book from commentary advocating political ends, and thoroughly secures his liberal credentials,(4) by including examples of censorship from both sides of the political spectrum.(5) By meting out the same treatment to the transgressions on both "sides," Hentoff subdues the instinctive reaction readers may have when an opinion or belief they hold is challenged. For example, after a withering attack on Rust v. Sullivan, 6 the "gag order" case (pp. 90-98), Hentoff goes on to assail "the pall of orthodoxy on the nation's campuses."(7)

Indeed, the determined censorship efforts of educators draw particular ire. Hentoff paints an unglamorous picture of policies designed to safeguard the feelings of protected groups. His portrayal of academic speech codes is particularly unflattering. He provides...