Herald denied ‘Dilbert’ author his First Amendment rights

Being on vacation I missed the tempest over repressing Scott Adams’ comic strip, “Dilbert” (“Editorial: Creator’s racist rants earn ‘Dilbert’ a pink slip,” The Herald, Feb. 28).

I was amused as always by the mendacious defense of this censorship by a leftist professor of “so called” journalism (“’Dilbert’ creator Adams forgot his audience,” The Herald, March 5). Boiled down, his key rationale was that Adams’ comments were “deemed offensive,” but the question is “deemed offensive” by whom? Who is to judge my speech or yours?

I submit that nobody but the marketplace of ideas and the passage of time; no man, government, or organization should have the power to limit, control, or dilute free expression. The founding fathers recognized this precept as a fundamental pillar of liberty in the First Amendment.

Furthermore, I understand that Adams’ speech was not part of his comic strip, so we see the vindictive action of the leftist media, again here, trying to cancel ideas with which they cannot engage and not dispute but rather punish. If The Herald and other “news” papers wonder why they are dying, it is because they don’t know their audience.

You are alienating we who adhere to the guarantees of liberty.

David Rash

Everett

Editor’s note: The First Amendment, in part, prevents government from prescribing what a publication can and cannot publish; allowing those publications to make those choices for themselves. Just as The Herald chooses to publish Mr. Rash’s letter, it has made the choice to no longer publish the work of Scott Adams.