The president of the United States was recently quoted as saying “Something is wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.” If taken at face value, that would suggest we should ban Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe and Cormac McCarthy and William Styron, among many other fine writers.
On the other hand, it’s hard for any sane rational human being to believe that the president of the United States, of all people, would not understand the concept of free speech in a democracy. So I’m guessing that it was a spelling error. What the president clearly meant to say was “Something is wrong with a country that can’t allow people to write purposely negative stories.”
Admittedly, it is theoretically possible that the president meant exactly what he said. But if that were true, it would imply that he is a complete blithering idiot. So let’s give the man the benefit of the doubt, and just assume that he can’t spell.