Corporate/commercial speech and the marketplace first amendment: Whose right was it, anyway?

Abstract

Contrary to popular American myth, freedom of speech as a right of individuals in a participatory democracy is virtually nonexistent. As defined in Supreme Court case law, freedom of speech is conceived principally as the right of society to hear information. This essay argues that the collective right to hear, expressed as “the marketplace of ideas” is the portal through which corporate commercial/political speech entered and took over the marketplace of ideas. The symbiotic relationships between corporations, corporate media, and government enabled the takeover to be less than hostile. Short of social cataclysm, individual freedom of speech will probably play an increasingly diminished role in American public affairs.