LETTER: Free speech or bribery?
A former Adidas executive and two others are going to prison for funneling illegal payments to families of basketball recruits.
Why is it legal for corporations and individuals to dump billions of dollars into the political process in an attempt to influence the outcome of elections and the legislative decisions of representatives (Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision), but a crime to give a poor kid’s family a few thousand bucks in an attempt to influence the decision the kid makes concerning his choice of which college to attend?
It’s a rhetorical question. Anyone paying attention knows that we live in a plutocracy. For the wealthy, exerting influence using money is “free speech.” For the rest of us, it’s bribery.
Don DeAngelis
Canonsburg