This isn't exactly a recent event, but it's worth discussing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bywtn9RIDRw

In this video, renowned crazy old lady Dianne Feinstein openly speaks in a Judiciary Committee saying this:

"Freedom of speech is a privilege intended for educated professionals. It should be illegal for a high school dropout to promote anti-government propaganda on his 5 dollar blog, if he cannot properly verify his statements"

Essentially, unless you are a journalist, you shouldn't say anything that the government doesn't like in her ideal world.

Why does this woman feel as though basic human life, the main concept of our very speech, opinions, should be illegal if the government does not approve of it?

This is beyond wrong, and the fact she can be held highly and taken seriously in the way she does is just horrifying to see in regular senate.

What are your thoughts on this statement?

Often the wisdom of a child can be greater than the worldly knowledge of a journalist.  To deny ourselves (infants, children, teenagers, and adults) the right to free speech would be to deny creativity itself.  While abusive language should not be allowed, opinions and beliefs should be allowed to be spoken about openly.  Such is our constitutional and God-given right.  How would children grow to be good journalists or even be interested in journalism in the first place if they were not allowed to voice their opinions in public?  Why would they live in America?

Well, words escape me. It's like.....gosh, really, I can't fathom into words how wrong this is. I guess it's like saying you can pick any apples on an apple farm to sell, but only the ones the manager says to pick. All the apples are perfectly tasty and appealing in every aspect, but since the apple picker picked his own apples because he liked those better instead of the apples he was meant to pick, they are thrown into a furnace and the apple picker is jailed for life. It's just....silly. I don't really want to believe this can be real, but I should know better.

I'm no big shot in politics and governmental power flow charts, but are these people reviewed on what the term freedom should mean? This is just baffling to me.

Because journalists are renowned for their honesty, they don't give way to sensationalism, money, pressure from the government or editor...

The real concern is that people voted for her. They should have their own TV show, because half of these guys are a joke.

There is no such thing as freedom of speech to start with and it is because pee brained fascists like that. I don't care how much of an education, money, or what your job is, you should be able to say what every you want and believe what you believe in. I am a broke, under educated person and I am going to say what I want to say when I want to say it! You law man, government, or anything else will not stop me. I believe in Anarchy, true freedom, the glory of self responsibility and a work day that actually makes a difference if it happens or not, now what are you going to do about that Dianne Feinstein.

This lady already has a lot of like minded people in Russia. I suggest she should take a tour there. Also she should take a ride to Turkey where they almost banned Twitter.

And in China where Facebook is already illegal. And more so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_China

Last stop should be North Korea. I bet she would see that as the paradise it is.

I'm not afraid to say that this woman is a nutjob, and no, this is not the first time I've heard of the ridiculous things she's said on camera. Let's not forget that this woman is completely okay with the spying that Edward Snowden uncovered... that is, until she found out that Senators were being spied on too, only then was she suddenly concerned.

What ticks me off most about that quote is the "5 dollar blog" part. I'm not joking when I say that 5 dollars is a lot of money to a lot of people. To phrase her statement this way, only indicates that she is on the side of big business and big money and that the common citizen has no real value besides the meager amount they pay in taxes. No surprise really.

What were we talking about?

US Senator says "Freedom of speech is a special privilege for journalists"

mrfe says "Too bad"

She can take her ideas of limited free speech and go hang out in North Korea. I certainly won't listen to her. I'm not gonna shut up, just cuz she thinks I'm too dumb to do anything but pay taxes. Humph.