The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

James Taranto is out of the office on assignment.  The excerpt below is from the 9/21 BOTW Archives.

Shut Up, They Explained
Remember when free speech was in peril during the Bush administration? Of course not, because it wasn’t. In fact, if this Associated Press report is the start of a trend, the Bush years may be remembered as a golden age of civil liberties:

The government is investigating a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under health care legislation in Congress.

The Health and Human Services Department launched its investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry.

“It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject–particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform,” Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation. . . .

In a warning letter to Humana, HHS said the government is concerned that the mailer “is misleading and confusing” partly because the company’s lobbying campaign could be mistaken for an official communication about Medicare benefits.

HHS ordered the company to immediately halt any such mailings, and remove any related materials from its Web site. In the letter, the government also said it may take other action against Humana.

Now of course, the government has considerable authority to regulate commercial speech to make sure it is not “misleading and confusing,” but the Humana mailing sounds political to us, and misleading and confusing political speech, such as we hear when President Obama’s lips move, is protected by the First Amendment.

The AP reports Humana backed down, stopping the mailing and announcing that it would cooperate with the investigation. Corporations may provide lots of useful goods and services, but never count on them to take a stand for freedom.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.