Just another piece on the Sun’s cutting room floor

It is nice to see the Las Vegas Sun devote such a large amount of real estate to the words of longtime ACLU executive director and civil liberties advocate extraordinaire Gary Peck. The transciption of his interview with Dave Berns on KNPR’s State of Nevada program a week and a half ago started on the cover and filled much of page 2.

In that interview he talked about his style, the ACLU fight for free speech, and defense of unpopular causes.

Peck said things like: “Certainly, with free speech comes responsibility, but the answer to irresponsible speech is not censorship. The answer to irresponsible speech is responsible speech.”

I provided a link to the interview in an earlier blog.

The Sun called what it published a transcript, but did provide this caveat: “The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.”
Sure enough one of Peck’s comments was excised.

At about 15 minutes into the discussion, Peck remarked on a question Berns had about a libel suit between two politicians. Berns had mentioned a column I had written about that case suggesting the outcome might chill free speech.

This prompted Peck to remark that he was not familiar with the case, but: “Tom Mitchell, by the way, has been nothing if not a zealous, unwaiveringly principled defender of free speech, at least throughout my 13 years here in the state. I understand Tom’s concerns.”

That remark wound up on the cutting room floor. I wonder why?