Gingrich's tweet was limited to so few characters that he could hardly have put them into the context he likely intended. Upon reflection, he later said he doesn't consider her a racist.

Maybe that's because he got the chance to learn the context of her remarks. Sotomayor was speaking about the wisdom of the all-white Supreme Court that delivered the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision that overturned public school segregation.

Sotomayor is human and, thus, fallible. Her remarks will not stop her from being confirmed. Nor should they.

I would hope that we would all defend as reasonable any speech that does not defame, libel or maliciously try to incite genuine harm, no matter who is speaking or writing.

Many conservatives growl about MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. His TV show includes a segment that labels someone as the "Worst Person in the World." Those are pretty strong words! But half the time the segment is funny, and even when it seems vicious, I would fight for his right to make it part of his show.

In the case of Savage, I have been shocked at the failure of more voices to step forward to defend him against Smith's decision to ban him from Britain. Moreover, when Smith, like many in the current British government, announced this week that she was stepping down from her post, hardly an American newspaper so much as referred to the Savage controversy. That, even though this has been a widely publicized and debated situation in Britain, which likely hastened Smith's departure.

I know conservative talk show hosts, liberal writers and others, who, for various reasons, don't like Savage. But they are missing the point. One day it is Savage who is on watch lists or banned from entering a great nation. If left unchecked, it might next be one of those people who quietly sat back and watched Savage have to fight this fight alone.

It's time we defend freedom of speech, including "tweets," be it ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative. It's also time we start putting comments into context and giving people the opportunity to defend their statements -- even if that means their saying, "I really didn't mean that."