Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 3 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By HERB SCHMERTZ
Rappahannock New* Contributinp Writer
Conservatives are having great fim watching the battle in the liberal community over which faction is to have exclusive rights to the interpretation of the First Amendment.
The heart of the debate concerns whether advertising is speech, because if it is, then — according to the Bill of Rights — “Congress shall make no law .. . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, in 1976, referred to advertising as “commercial speech,” and said, “It is clear . . . that speech does not lose its First Amendment protection because money is spent to project it. . .” He took pains to add, however, that his opinion didn’t mean commercial speech “can never be regulated in anyway.”
So advertising is obviously there somewhere under the wing of the First Amendment, but not secured as firmly, perhaps, as the editorials in your daily paper. Most of us wouldn’t quarrel with that state of affairs. We don’t mind the press advocating any fool thing that comes into its head, but we shy away from permitting ads that say eating creosote-treated timber will put curly
93.5%