If a corporation doesn't have free speech rights like a person does
There is nothing in the 1st amendment that makes some parts apply to corporations and some parts not apply.
People have the freedom of speech. People also have the freedom of the press. Both are rights of the people guaranteed by the same "Congress shall make no law".
They either still have those rights within groups including corporations, or they do not. If they do not, then the New York Times has no constitutional protection (at least not from the 1st amendment).
Also if push comes to shove, if the companies really cared enough to get their political message out, and if somehow communication from press companies is constitutionally protected but other communication/speech from corporations is not, then Exxon Mobil, GE, IBM, and Pfizer could all release newspapers saying "vote for candidate X". Freedom of the press isn't limited to large newspapers, or ones with regular publishing schedules; and if it somehow was, and companies really wanted to spend the billions that some think they will spend, to try to swamp elections, than they could make large regularly published papers, that they create for a loss, that push the ideas (or they could do the same thing with magazines, radio channels, TV stations, etc.) |
