Kerby Anderson

Should private businesses be allowed to decide what products and services they sell? The question seems absurd. Of course, they should be free to decide what products and services they sell to the general public. Tim Cook, (Apple’s CEO) has been in the news over the last few months. He received the prestigious Free Expression award from the Newseum in Washington, D.C. In accepting the award, he talked about the values of Apple and the need for corporations to have values. That is the reason they banned some apps from the Apple Store that they believed were “offensive or mean-spirited.” Unfortunately, as David French explains in a recent column the corporate philosophy of Apple doesn’t seem to extend to other businesses. He says, you can sum up their corporate philosophy in eight words. “Free speech for me, but not for thee.” Last month Apple and a number of corporations urged the Supreme Court to rule against Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop. He and his business exercised the same rights that Apple and the other businesses did in deciding not to bake a cake for a same-sex ceremony. David French explained the similarity. “Just as Apple was unwilling to use its App Store to express ideas it found offensive, Masterpiece Cakeshop chose not to create a rainbow wedding cake to celebrate a gay wedding. Just as Apple claims that it engages in expression, not discrimination, Masterpiece Cakeshop says it serves all comers, without regard to race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.” He was not singling out homosexuals. He has served many of them with other baked goods. But he sometimes has to say no. In the past, he has refused to make custom cakes for Halloween, divorce celebrations, and bachelor parties. As perhaps you can now see, Jack Phillips isn’t discriminating on the basis of identity but on the basis of message. Apparently Apple does not understand that and do not see their hypocrisy.