Book-Banning at the Supreme Court
THE SCRAPBOOK has not seen Hillary: The Movie, a 90-minute documentary produced during the secretary of state's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency last year. But we have a suspicion that the content is critical of its subject. Hillary was produced by David Bossie, the veteran conservative activist, for Citizens United, of which he is president. And neither Bossie nor Citizens United would be counted among Hillary Rodham Clinton's admirers.
But that's just part of the story. The Federal Election Commission has decided that Hillary: The Movie is in violation of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, which forbids "any broadcast, cable or satellite communications" that refer to any candidate for federal office within a certain number of weeks before an election.
This is usually interpreted to mean brief radio or television spots, produced by corporations, labor unions, or advocacy groups, that are intended to appeal to voters and mention candidates by name. But a federal court ruled that the McCain-Feingold strictures would also apply to movies such as Hillary, which Citizens United had sought to broadcast on cable television.
Last week, in arguments before the Supreme Court on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it fell to Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart to explain why McCain-Feingold demands the banning of Hillary: The Movie. Some of the more left-leaning justices-notably Stephen Breyer and David Souter-had no trouble finding fault with Hillary-"It is not a musical comedy," growled Justice Breyer-but then the discussion was pushed along by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wondered whether the McCain-Feingold strictures would apply to other media as well.
When asked if the federal government could prevent corporate or union funds from producing a book that mentioned a candidate within the McCain-Feingold time frame, Stewart replied that it could. There was an exception in the law for the press, he said, but he saw no reason why books could not be found in violation of the law, and be banned:
Roberts: If it has one name, one use of the candidate's name, it would be covered, correct? Stewart: That's correct. Roberts: It's a 500-page book, and at the end it says, "And so vote for X," the government could ban that?
McCain-Feingold, Stewart responded, is intended to restrict the use of funds for what it calls "electioneering communications," and that would include books.
THE SCRAPBOOK would like to think that, at that moment, a very large light bulb suddenly switched on above the heads of the nine justices, and it was revealed to each one that the outrageous restrictions on free speech in McCain-Feingold are an obvious violation of the First Amendment, cornerstone of our liberties.
We shall see. In the meantime, whatever the merits of Hillary: The Movie, if it turns out to be the instrument for striking down McCain-Feingold's unconstitutional infringements on speech-or better yet, overturning the whole ill-conceived statute-it deserves an unprecedented Academy Award for public service.
Defamation-While We Still Can
P.J. O'Rourke emails THE SCRAPBOOK:
The U.N. Human Rights Council-with the championing of human rights led by delegates from -Belarus, Venezuela and Pakistan-has passed a resolution urging countries around the world to make "defamation of religion" illegal. Given the Obama administration's desire for closer cooperation with the U.N., those laws may be on the books in America by the time you read this. But we will defy Attorney General Eric Holder and the fearsome weapons of the U.N.'s black helicopters enforcing his writ. Herewith a last stand for the defamatory rights of free speech: How many Episcopalians attend church on Sunday? Fore. What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian? Someone who goes door-to-door for no reason. Hey, Presbyterians, if everything is predestined by God, how come the tornado blew your double-wide to God-knows-where? What caused the Catholic priest to have a sex change? Altar girls. Then there was the Baptist congregation that put up a sign, "CH_RCH What's Missing?" And they spent all week trying to figure it out. Why was the Dalai Lama reincarnated as a compulsive gambler? So he'd get Tibet. Did you hear about the dyslexic Hindu who had 47,000 dogs? What do you get if you call a Sikh a reckless, insane maniac? A taxi. And what's the difference between Jews and Muslims? A profit.
The Fall of the Times
From Mark Bowden's profile of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., the publisher and chairman of the New York Times, in the May Vanity Fair:
Only two years ago the New York Times Company moved into a new skyscraper on Eighth Avenue designed by Renzo Piano. Its façade rises into the clouds like an Olympian column of gray type. Whether owing to hubris or sheer distraction, the erection of a new headquarters often seems to spell trouble for corporations, and many had questioned the wisdom of this investment. The new Times building has now been sold, one more measure to relieve the company's mounting debt. Eyeing the handsome grove of birch trees planted in its soaring atrium, one reporter told me, "We used to joke about how many trees died for a story. Now we ask, How many stories died for those trees?"
Homelessness Update
"Mrs. Obama and her staff also visited Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen, where the first lady bumped into Bill Richardson, a 46-year-old homeless man. Mr. Richardson was so stunned that he could barely stammer thank you as Mrs. Obama scooped a helping of mushroom risotto onto his plate this month" ( New York Times, March 26). THE SCRAPBOOK is pleased to learn that the homeless are dining better in the Obama era. </π> <π>
Sentences We Didn't Finish
"The Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer confrontation on The Daily Show is being widely compared to that between Edward R. Murrow and Joe McCarthy . . . " ("Is Jon Stewart Our Edward Murrow? Maybe . . . ," by Eric Alterman, The Nation, April 13).
Life Imitates P. J. (cont.)
Mark Hemingway calls THE SCRAPBOOK's attention to an omission in last week's item on the eerie, increasing resemblance of real life to P.J. O'Rourke's satires. Here's P.J. in our February 9 issue:
The next great government crusade will be against soap.
And here is a March 27 dispatch from the Associated Press:
SPOKANE, Wash. - The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well.