EDITORIAL – Mountain out of a molehill

When you enter into a contract in which specific terms are laid out covering the manner in which you conduct yourself in fulfillment of your end of the bargain, you lose the right to cry out later if you willfully violate those terms and the other party rectifies the violation.

This is the crux of the matter concerning the brouhaha over a mural commissioned by the National Press Club to be undertaken by a group of artists. Curtailment of freedom of expression absolutely has got nothing to do with it.

Under the terms of the contract, the National Press Club specifically asked the group of artists not to introduce political messages into the work of art. By agreeing to do the mural, and accepting payment for it, the artists are understood to have accepted those terms.

But the finished product showed otherwise. There were political messages in it. So the National Press Club, acting perfectly within its rights as owner of the mural, and as offended party in a violated contract, caused the expurgation of the offending political messages.

The artists raised a howl. Worse, they were joined by holier-than-thou self-styled defenders of media ethics in turning a simple offense of breach of contract into a constitutional violation of the freedom of expression. What a crazy nation this country is becoming.

The National Press club, or any club, organization, gang, family, or individual, has all the legal rights to do what he, she or it pleases with something that he, she or it has legally bought and acquired or taken possession of.

That is because ownership of something legally transfers to the buyer upon satisfaction of the conditions of a sale, usually the payment of money to the seller. Had the National Press Club chosen to burn the mural, there would have been nothing the artists could do about it.

Curtailment of freedom of expression? Bah. Some people just love to take issue where none exists. On the other hand, just for the sake of the argument, wasn’t what the National Press Club did to the mural an exercise of its own freedom of expression? Now who’s trying to curtail who?