Decius Writ:

6. Having said all of this, Nike is probably engaged in commercial speech. People make a decision about whether or not to do business with Nike based on whether their products are produced via a moral means. Misleading the public about this is false advertising. You don't need to destroy the free press in order to bust Nike for this.

MoonPie Replied:
Well yes, thank you, it is commercial speech. That's the whole point, not that the beleaguered rich don't have a right to free speech. Nike argues that they have a right to false advertising because they are a corporation-that-is-a-person with first amendment protection from false advertising suits. In other words, false advertising laws do not apply to them. If they do not apply to them, they do not apply to other corporations. That's exactly why corporations should not be treated as legal persons, only natural human beings should be. The corporation is a limited liability device to shield investors and owners from losses, and make money. A church is not a corporation, the cub scouts and PTA are not corporations; a corporation has a specific definition and purpose. The history of the corporation, which the article explores, makes it pretty clear what the thinking was about monied industrial concerns. Abe Lincoln felt they were a worse threat to our democracy than the Civil War. Nearly a hundred years later, President Eisenhower in a similar vein would warn the country of the growing danger to our democracy of the "military-industrial complex". They were right. Our civic culture has atrophied to the point that most people don't even bother to vote, let alone argue and debate about substantial matters. What difference does it make?

Separate from the "commercial speech is free speech" argument is the question of the right of the rich to effectively have more speech than anyone else. They DO have a right to their speech, and by buying ads on TV, radio, billboards and in magazines, they make themselves heard, by owning media corporations and directing what is news and what is not, by pulling advertising from media that do not report the way they like, they make themselves heard. You and me blog away and maybe two people read it. It's just a fact that the rich have more access and more power. Our society is organized around commerce and technology, and money is the key. If you don't have money, you don't have power. THAT's perfectly constitutional.

RE: Now Corporations Claim The 'Right To Lie'