Free speech is not freedom from accountability.

Politicians like a microphone, a megaphone, a bully pulpit (a phrase coined by Teddy Roosevelt). How do I know?

For several years I had the joy of being a member of a band - The Blues Devils, here in Pittsburgh that started by playing Democratic party fundraisers called "Blues for Blues" and in the course of those events (we played many others too) there would come time in the evening for the guests of honor to talk.

Once the Microphone was handed to a politician, we knew the evening, musically was either over or it was going to be a long time before we got it back.

Not that we didn't want to here what these folks had to say. Just saying, politicians are attracted to situations where they can speak.

To me, this explains why some world leaders have decried the twitter ban of the President. Some have said it should be a public vote. Some have said big tech needs to be regulated rather than having their own rules.

For me, taking that particular microphone away, when the person is using the platform in a manipulative, dangerous way - and has done so multiple times - well, it's perfectly OK.

They still have mechanisms to speak to everyone in the country. Mechanisms, like a press room, that have more accountability - they have to answer tough questions, from multiple angles.

We should be worried when these folks get unlimited access to platforms to deliver messages. Where there is no accountability for what is said.

Free speech says you say what you feel. You have that right. But free speech is not free from consequences. If you incite people to violence, if you do things that smack of sedition, you have to be prepared to deal with the seeds you have sown.

It is why free speech can exist. We think about what we are going to say, how it will effect people. We weigh what it will do and mean. If you don't, then you are living in a self centered universe that makes everyone else less important - that person is a sociopath at the least. Giving sociopaths unlimited voice is a tremendous mistake. There needs to be checks and balances - accountability - for how they move the public, because their moral self won't provide restraint.

Not all politicians are sociopaths. But all of them are attracted to the Bully Pulpit, in a way similar to an alcoholic looking for a drink. It's OK to cut them off and send them home to sleep it off. It will keep them from driving drunk. They'll get to speak another day.

I believe social media needs to be moderated. And I do think we can come to some legal ways to do that - but it cannot be in the hands of the politicians and likely should not be left in the hands of the general public.

Tech companies having individual choice allows us, at this point, a check and balance. Like our three branches of government, it provides accountability. Until we figure out a way to regulate without giving direct control to the politicians, it's protection we need to preserve.