Life & Wisdom Quote by L. Neil Smith

There is a libertarian sleight-of-hand in L. Neil Smith's line: it sounds like a simple civics refresher, but it smuggles a whole political temperament into nine calm words. The parenthetical "as they should be" is the tell. It's not just agreement with the Constitution; it's a preemptive defense against the crowd that always seems ready to carve out an exception: yes, even them. Even when they're wrong, smug, hysterical, captured, or irritating. Even when you hate the headline.

Smith, best known for fiction steeped in anti-authoritarian instincts, uses "the media" as a proxy for a larger anxiety about power. He doesn't say "journalists" or "news organizations" - terms that might invite a debate about professionalism or standards. "The media" is a loaded collective noun, the bogeyman phrase of talk radio and comment sections. By choosing it, he meets critics on their own terrain and then refuses their conclusion. If the least sympathetic target is still protected, the principle is real.

The sentence also performs a rhetorical inversion: it separates constitutional protection from moral approval. The First Amendment isn't a gold star for good behavior; it's a structural constraint on government, designed precisely for the moments when speech is unpopular, reckless, or inconvenient. Smith's intent isn't to sanctify the press. It's to remind you that the temptation to punish it is the same temptation that will eventually come for everyone else.