Larry Flynt’s gold-plated wheelchair was the most obvious example of the consequences he has suffered for his beliefs and actions promoting the First Amendment.

Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine and a free speech advocate, was the victim of an assassination attempt outside of a courthouse in 1978. The man who later confessed to the crime was a white supremacist who was angry at Flynt for putting an interracial photo in Hustler. The shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down.

But Flynt said he doesn’t like to dwell on his unfortunate situation.

“I just make the best of it and I try to enjoy life. I love traveling and I love work,” Flynt said. “I could crawl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb, but I think a lot of people in the world are in a lot of worse shape than I’m in.”

Flynt, 70, discussed his life and First Amendment issues in front of a packed Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center on Tuesday evening. His talk was a part of the Tully Center for Free Speech’s 2013 Distinguished Speaker Series.

Flynt began his speech by noting that while most people will say they support free speech and understand what it entails, the majority of them will back off when they consider the downsides of allowing everyone to speak openly without fear of government prosecution.

Even though free speech might sometimes mean hearing things one doesn’t agree with, it is a necessary evil, Flynt said.

“Free speech is not the freedom for the thought that you love,” he said. “It’s the freedom for the thought that you hate the most.”

Flynt’s visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the landmark Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell case, in which the Rev. Jerry Falwell sued Flynt in response to a cartoon depicting Falwell and his mother. The magazine won the case, which set a standard for preventing public figures from suing because of parodies.

But Flynt was still forced to pay Falwell $200,000 on a lesser charge.

“They awarded Falwell $200,000 in damages on infliction of emotional distress basically because I hurt his feelings,” he said.

In addition to the Falwell case, Flynt has been called into court many times regarding obscenity. In 1976, he was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison, but the case was turned over on a technicality.

“I’ve been blamed for every ill in society for the past 40 years,” Flynt quipped.

Paige Shepperly, a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major, said it was interesting to think about how much the idea of free speech actually entails.

“We each have our own personal interpretation of the First Amendment,” Shepperly said. “There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t believe in what people say, and to realize that, in order to have free speech, you have to hear those kinds of things. It was eye opening.”

Near the end of the event, a Syracuse University professor asked Flynt about the potential negative effects of pornography in today’s society. Flynt responded by saying pornography is no different than some of the other more accepted forms of media.

“You can publish a photograph of a mutilated, decapitated body on the front of a newspaper and might even win a Pulitzer Prize,” Flynt said. “But if you let a picture of two people making love on a newspaper, you probably go to jail.”

Published on March 6, 2013 at 12:17 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3