[USATODAY] Making matters incalculably worse is the fact that the most immediate threats to free speech in this country don't come from abroad, but from here at home. As described three years ago by Jonathan Turley in the Washington Post, we are witnessing the censoring of speech under one of four rationales: Speech is blasphemous; Speech is hateful; Speech is discriminatory; Speech is deceitful."

Shortly after the Sony affair broke open, Ross Douthat, the loneliest and bravest journalist at The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, wrote one of the most powerful paragraphs about that, and related, matters:

Of course it had to escalate this way. We live in a time of consistent gutlessness on the part of institutions notionally committed to free speech and intellectual diversity, a time of canceled commencement invitations and CEOs defenestrated for their political donations, a time of Twitter mobs, trigger warnings and cringing public apologies. A time when journalists and publishers tiptoe around Islamic fundamentalism, when free speech is under increasing pressure on both sides of the Atlantic, when a hypersensitive political correctness has the whip hand on many college campuses.
So why should anyone be remotely surprised when Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
decided to get in on the "don't offend me" act?
So what to do? Enforcement of the First Amendment won't suffice because it only proscribes governmental abridgement of free speech, and only, of course, in the United States.

Here's a couple suggestions. The next time you read or hear something that you think is truly awful, moronic, hateful or false, send a comment by email, text or social media stating your objections but also saying that you respect the right of the offending party to speak his or her piece.

And when you hear of some group or individual threatening advertisers with boycotts for advertising on programs they don't like, contact those same advertisers yourself and let them know that you have a different view.

In the end, free speech can be guaranteed, if at all, not by the press or government, but only by the people.