Letterman's Not Funny Joke

Regarding Letterman's terribly inappropriate joke about Sarah Palin's 14 year old daughter:  He should be ashamed of himself.

This has nothing to do with political correctness.  Candidates' children are off limits and "knocked up" jokes about kids aren't funny.

That aside, what really gets my goat about some of the commentary on the Internet is the constant insertion of the meme of Letterman's supports: "Don't you value Free Speech?"

Of course Republicans value Free Speech.  People can say whatever they want, except false speech.

What they cannot expect to exclude, which goes hand in hand with exercising rights, are public consequences. The government cannot put him in jail for telling a bad joke or insulting someone, but the public is certainly within their right to respond with Free Speech and Free Action of their own, to call for Letterman's head on a proverbial platter.

If that means he's stripped of his job because people boycott Letterman's advertisers, or they tune-out of his show, putting his rankings in the tank, that, too is Free Speech.  The public is free to respond with their remote control, to write and complain to the network, and to boycott CBS's advertisers.

Freedom of expression cuts both ways.