why is exactly why corporations should not be "people", to prevent this idiocy.
A person can't send threats to other people either. It's not something specific to corporations.
It doesn't matter if the speech is named after a real person or not.
The flip a switch send people to jail fantasy, is silly handwaving.
Or. just take away corporate personhood and the investors will no longer by liable for jail time.
The First Amendment in plain words protects the free speech rights of corporations, by referring to "the press". I have no opinion on what Amazon is doing, but they have a right to object to things on First Amendment grounds.
Edit: having read the blurb, there's a solid case to be made that captive-audience meetings are an illegal speech act, the same way that you aren't allowed to corner someone in an alley and say "give me your wallet".
Having First Amendment rights, which corporations do, does not give them license to violate the law through acts of free speech. It isn't the speaking which is proscribed in those cases, but the illegal act conveyed through speech.
Amazon is not "the press". That is very clearly referring to news/journalism, not "anything any company happens to communicate".
The First Amendment protects the free speech rights of people, not companies acting outside of a journalistic context.
Your statement is also dead wrong on the face of it. https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com