Free Speech Cannot Be Legislated

It is impossible to legislate 'responsibility' or 'accountability' into free speech, which explains why the Founders didn't attempt to include such conditions into the Bill of Rights, and why the courts have been loath to define 'irresponsible' speech.

Thank God the First Amendment doesn't read like this:

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, as long as the speech is considered responsible by whichever faction of society currently holds the upper hand in government and media ownership.­"

Because if it did, it would make the entire concept of free speech an unworkable fraud. It's too easy to slander a political opinion you disagree with as 'irresponsible', in an effort to prevent people from having access to that opinion.

Free speech, if replaced by managed speech, dies.

The rewritten 1st Amendment above would put control over speech into the hands of government and into the hands of those with the loudest media megaphones, instead of keeping it in the hands of the individual- where all rights belong. Rights are not rationed out based on the popularity of one's political views.