The Potential High Cost of Free Speech
Every single day, Minnesota Litigator receives visits from across the United States and world-wide. Not all that many, but still. All of us now have the power to speak and be heard world-wide for essentially $0. This is a stunning earth-shattering transformation of human society. Advice: Proceed With Caution.
Because you have the ability to disseminate information at no cost can be a huge power and a potentially serious liability. (No matter the ultimate result in McKee v. Laurion, maybe Dennis Laurion has learned this lesson the hard way.)
It is possible that former NFL’r Robert R. Lurtsema will be another poster-child of the Not-So-Inexpensive-But-At-The-Same-Time-Free-Speech-Movement (aka, “NSIBATSTFSM,” or “Nesibatstiffsem”). Bob had this to say about the dispute between retired NFL’rs and the NFL pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. In response, the NFL has this to say.
As an East Coast transplant who cannot differentiate a tail-back from a nose-guard (and where are the Cardinals these days? Are there still Cardinals?), I have no position on either the immediate dispute between the NFL and Lurtsema or the broader legal battle between the retired players and the NFL.
My only reactions are (1) that we all need to appreciate that information is power and power can electrocute you if you bathe with a plugged-in device, so that is a stupid thing to do, and (2) the dispute triggers a wistful and nostalgic recollection of ROBERT J. LURTSEMA who greeted me every morning with his bizarrely soft and slow classical music morning show on WGHB out of Boston through the 1970’s.
(A final aside: have you noted that many people talk to the dead via the internet these days? People post messages on their preferred social media platforms along these lines: “Thanks, Dad, we’ve not forgotten you,” or “Michael Jackson, we miss you!”? Will this meme persist over the years? I confess that I have had to fight the impulse to pop a message to Robert J. Lurtsema here. I don’t want to bug him.)