Left, Right, Left.

            This week, The Gainesville Sun ran an ad reading, “Barack Obama and the Democrats did not inherit the bad economy; they caused it and made it worse.” 

            Now I’m not debating the accuracy of the ad, merely advocating its right to be placed.  The U.S. Citizens Association paid for it, and it doesn’t violate any legal bounds as public officials can rarely by libeled.    

            Yet, angry readers sounded off.  Some went so far as to take an action as original as saying “yo mama” for a comeback and canceled their subscriptions.  Yeah, that ought to show them.  Never mind the part about subscriptions barely covering the delivery cost of the paper. 

            All of this because The Gainesville Sun published something certain readers believed to be false.  That’s the point of the First Amendment: to guarantee freedom of speech.

            What they should do is think about how great it is to live in a country where someone can place an ad critical of the president and not be executed.

            The Gainesville Sun made no attempt to pass this off as news; they even placed “advertisement” at the top of it.  Without ads, media outlets would go out of business.  The Gainesville Sun is simply doing what’s necessary to continue bringing its readers the news.  I’m sure the economy the ad-in-question mentions has caused ad revenue to diminish and led many news organizations to adopt policies of “if it’s legal, run it.”

            As I write this, I’m looking through Tuesday’s edition of The Alligator.  I see all kinds of ads claiming various things.  Nobody seems to be mistaking ads for male-enhancement products for hard news (no pun intended).