Gingrich says NBC should have allowed clapping: ‘Media doesn’t control free speech’

[JDPriestly]

7. Actually, Gingrich needs to talk to Justice Kennedy about that.

. . . . All speakers, including individuals and the media, use money amassed from the economic marketplace to fund their speech, and the First Amendment protects the resulting speech. Under the antidistortion rationale, Congress could also ban political speech of media corporations. Although currently exempt from §441b, they accumulate wealth with the help of their corporate form, may have aggregations of wealth, and may express views “hav[ing] little or no correlation to the public’s support” for those views. Differential treatment of media corporations and other corporations cannot be squared with the First Amendment , and there is no support for the view that the Amendment’s original meaning would permit suppressing media corporations’ political speech. Austin interferes with the “open marketplace” of ideas protected by the First Amendment . New York State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres , 552 U. S. 196 . Its censorship is vast in its reach, suppressing the speech of both for-profit and nonprofit, both small and large, corporations. Pp. 32–40.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html

This is a quote from the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

The media has the right to deprive others of free speech. It is a private company.

The First Amendment only requires the government to respect your right to free speech, Mr. Gingrich. That is elementary to an understanding of our Constitution. If you don't know that, Mr. Gingrich, you have no business running for president. The job is way over your head.