The First Amendment is not absolute

For example, there is Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr’s famous dictum about how yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater is not constitutionally protected speech.

A similar situation with newspapers might be letters to the editor, but it goes further than that. Other than not printing letters that are legally slanderous, newspapers also have the right to not print letters for other reasons. We can not print them if, even short of slander, they are abusive or otherwise not decorous.

Also, a newspaper is a business. And, unlike television and radio, it is not governed by a Fairness Doctrine on something like political advertising. If a newspaper chose to accept political ads from just one political party, it has the right to do that.

A blog is not exactly like a newspaper. But, there are analogies. Blog comments might be considered equivalent to letters to the editor.