In a nation that so values freedom of speech, one would think that frank talk would also be valued. But consider the consequences in three settings.

First, New York City mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer violated what should be Rule No. 1 of politics: Be clear and consistent. He commented on the 1999 killing of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by four trigger-happy Bronx cops. To a cop audience, he said the shooting was no crime. To a civilian audience, he called it “a bad shooting.” Many were confused.

Second, Mexican President Vicente Fox, who favors Mexicans working in the United States even if they are here illegally, said: “There’s no doubt that the Mexican men and women – full of dignity, will power and a capacity for work – are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States.” His insensitive remarks were taken as an insult by blacks who are more easily insulted than I.

Third, Bill Cosby is touring the country provoking straight talk among blacks about social responsibility and parenting. That he has drawn fire is evident from the title of scholar Michael Eric Dyson’s book, “Is Bill Cosby Right or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?”

Ferrer is right. Fox is right. Cosby is right. But, gosh almighty, how their messages have been twisted into the controversies only we in the media can create. This is manufactured drama aimed at a dumbed-down public that accepts sound bites as the full meal.

Ferrer has been flogged because of his remarks pitched to different audiences, but which were essentially true. Diallo’s senseless death was a tragedy but legally not a crime. It’s time Ferrer remove the hair shirt and answer: What will you do that Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t doing?

Fox was right, to a point. The truth is, Mexicans and other illegal immigrants often take jobs no Americans, not just blacks, want.

As for Cosby, I say: Keep on speaking out. But walk into the lion’s den. Don’t just preach to the choir.

As I observed last week while moderating Cosby’s “call out” in Roosevelt, N.Y., most of those who showed up are already doing what he suggests. They’re not bad parents. Heck, they’re not all that poor, dollar-wise. That they share Cosby’s values was evident in the amens and applause as he condemned giving in to victimization rather than drawing on the strength of generations that endured far more than today’s girls who become single mothers, boys who sire and abandon children, and parents who overindulge rather than ride herd on their kids.

“You have the answer,” he told an audience that seemed to revere him as lay minister and megastar. “You’ve got to talk to each other. You’ve got to take those responsibilities.”

We Americans are not so spineless as to fear frank talk. But those who put themselves out there with such talk must know of what they speak, be consistent and resist backpedaling if the message isn’t popular.