I don't follow. Is your belief that "free speech absolutists" wouldn't support this reporter because he's a disabled union member Arab-American Marine veteran? Do you have any evidence for that? To my eye, the majority of the comments here side with the reporter, and quite possibly some of them are from "free speech absolutists". One would hardly qualify as an absolutist if one believed that freedom of speech depends on the the speaker. I'd guess that the majority of people here aren't absolutists, though, just people who understand that there are tradeoffs but still place a high value on freedom of speech.