In his expression of support for corporate protection under the First Amendment ("Corporate free speech," Forum, Feb. 4), David Taylor misses the mark on two key points.

First, defining corporations as "entities composed of individuals" is misleading. One might use this argument in specific cases where the corporation happens to be composed entirely of like-minded individuals, but even this ignores the fictitious nature of these associations. Corporations are creations of legal definition, and they may be formed to pursue the economic interests of a group of individuals or of a single person. Thus, they are not defined primarily by their human constituency. Neither are they endowed by their creators with unalienable rights; rather, they are granted the privilege of "existence" within statutorily defined parameters of behavior.

Second, the fear that news organizations might be denied the freedom to express political opinions if the Supreme Court had ruled in the other direction is simply misguided. News organizations are by definition "the press," and therefore are expressly protected by the First Amendment. Their legal structure is incidental to this issue.

Robert Hammer

Salt Lake City