On Topic: Today, let’s take the boat out a little farther

Two weeks ago in this column, I wrote about speaking out, and how that's extraordinarily important for an enlightened society and for the maturation of a free economy. (If I didn't write those thoughts exactly, I should have because it sounds kind of smart.)

I used boxer Muhammad Ali and writer Michael Herr, both of whom died the month before, as exemplars of those who have spoken out against prevailing views on the Vietnam War. While they didn't change everyone's mind over night — and some never — they added a new channel to the discussion.

Elie Wiesel died the day before that column appeared, but he could be on that list, too.

To add fuel to this to conversation comes Timothy Garton Ash's book, 'Free Speech: 10 Principles for a Connected World.'

Garton Ash, director of the University of Oxford's freespeechdebate.com project, cites French philosopher Michel Foucault, who in turn reached back to Philodemus, who referred to lectures by Zeno of Sidon — yeah, lost me, too, but stick with it — who contended free speech 'should be taught as a skill, like medicine or navigation.'

'In this crowded world,' Garton Ash writes, 'we must learn to navigate by speech, as ancient mariners taught themselves to sail across the Aegean Sea. We can never learn if we are not allowed to take the boat out.'

Much of modern debate about free speech seems to swirl around two key lightning rods: what free speech actually means — which, I think, is that in this country you can say whatever you want, but it doesn't mean you'll get away with it — and the use of protected free speech as a shield by the media.

And there's another land mine of a word — media. Attempts continue to be made to stretch the ever-expanding umbrella of that term to cover every publicly stated viewpoint of the Washington Post, NPR, 'Entertainment Tonight,' TMZ, Lorimor farmer Rick Friday's cartoons in 'Farm News' and this very newspaper.

Except when it doesn't. See the ongoing grudge match of Gawker versus the tag team of Terry Bollea — aka Hulk Hogan — and PayPal co-founder billionaire Peter Theil.

Mid-20th-century columnist A.J. Liebling once pointed out in 'The New Yorker' magazine that 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.' Garton Ash goes on to note Liebling also correctly observed: 'The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role is to make money.'

There's a paradox, right? For the media, that sets up conflicting goals: Chase the story that will bring the most eyeballs, and therefore hopefully more earnings, even if you run a few red lights to get the — maybe not fully verified — information out before your competitors do? Or take more time to look down every avenue to prepare the most accurate details you can gather — and cross your fingers the other guy doesn't get there first?

Two of Garton Ash's 10 principles discusses these very points, in separate chapters on journalism and privacy. For journalism, he argues that we as citizens need a protected media so we can make 'well-informed decisions and participate fully in political life.'

(He also makes a good case for how the internet increasingly polarizes viewpoints — or as he quotes 'The Daily Show's' John Oliver, people actually want 'to have their own views pushed back at them for free.' That is, they desire reinforcement of their own biases without the clutter of differing positions.)

In privacy's corner, the author presents the complex responsibility we all share of juggling the task of countering 'slurs on our reputations' while not hindering scrutiny that is in the public interest.

This is a challenging undertaking. Which likely is why Garton Ash's 10th principle of free speech is courage. To make free speech work, we need both courage and tolerance, we need both realistic idealism and idealistic realism.

And at the end of the day, he writes, 'We decide for ourselves and face the consequences.'

Brave heart.

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You still have time to get tickets to meet William Strauss, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's senior economist, who will be at the Cedar Rapids Public Library downtown Friday, July 29, for our next Business 380 Business & Breakfast. Strauss will talk about what's on his radar for the economy of Iowa and the Midwest, and take your questions.

Go to thegazette.com/tickets or call (319) 398-8345. He who hesitates, etc.

• Michael Chevy Castranova is Sunday business editor of The Gazette, among other things. (319) 398-5873; michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com