Please Help Support Free Speech
 

I posted this on my main page today & thought I'd throw it up here as well.

Freedom Of Speech also means that we have the freedom to offend. Lately, this concept has been abused by many special interest groups that seem to be on some sort of witch hunt for radio personalities. It started with Imus, then JV & Elvis and now, it's Opie & Anthony. How fucked is our society that people are this offended by words? It may be a children's song, but "sticks & stone may break my bones, but names will never hurt me" keeps ringing in my ear. Do your part to fight for your rights - click here and register at PeopleAgainstCensorship.com so that you can to help fight for our freedom.

Support Free Speech |thumb |thumb |thumb

good idea |thumb

It took less than 30 seconds|thumb

Makes me feel like dancing. |bananna|

Do you ever wonder if the Jerky Boys ever saw this coming when they wrote their "He hurt me with his words" skit?

I hate these silly uber-sensitive cunts who don't get jokes. I get jokes. I like jokes. I'm a big fan of the funny.

I registered, I get sick of political correctness which is a huge problem here in the UK.

People trying to force their "i'm a good citizen and i want everyone to know" fucked up attitudes on to everyone else.

I believe people should have the freedom to choose their own ways and means as long as it's legal.

If people get offended by things, their option is not to listen or view whatever they find offensive.

I'm In |thumb

I signed up, although I don't really see what Dom Imus' or O&A's employers did as censorship. They were just business decisions. Kind of sucks, but that's the way it is.

|banghead| Where are my phat brothers and sisters?? Why are we not protesting the daily insults that all forms of media deal out to us!! Phatties Unite!! PU demands all media stop with the persecution of thunder thighs and love handles. |boobies|

Anyway I joined.. i mean really why not just throw out the constitution.. there is a broad difference between "fuck you" and "if i don't fuck you, you're fired" ..

Do you see how shutting us down violates anyone's free speech? It's just business, right?

I just joined.
"If you can't say "Fuck" you can't say "Fuck the government!"

even i dont have much time, but free speech is important for me, in holland we have free speech, so yeah we can say whatever we want, its realy important that people in other countries can do the same, so i am going over that link and will support the "free speech"

"Shutting us down" would be a governmental thing. The government had nothing to do with this. It's an advertising thing. P&G, Sony, Nike, etc said "We don't want to advertise on your show if you let shock jocks say things that are going to upset our customers and MAKE THEM STOP GIVING US THEIR MONEY. If you continue to do it were going to STOP GIVING YOU MONEY."

What if MML decided to write "Don't visit this site, it's a piece of shit" on every free site description he wrote. If GG said "Cut that out, MML or no more boob hats for you", would that be censorship? No. GG has every right to run his site the way he sees fit, as does CBS.

CBS didn't say "you can't say that". They said "you can't say that using our broadcast equipment, and we're not going to pay you to say that". I think it's kind of chickenshit to hire a bunch of shock jocks for their controversy, then head for the hills the moment they cause a little, but the bottom line is their purpose in life is to make money, plain and simple.

well here in holland we can say that shit, as long you have an reason to write that and tell it, thats "freedom of speech"
yea thats censorship for me, you forche someone to shut down if not a respond will come, "no boobs hat" :D. "freedom of speech" is for me, you have something to say, but you also say why you think that way. and forching a person to shut down is censorship for me.

i hope i say this the right way, in ducth i can tell it all, but this is what i mean: probably not all know what "freedom of speech" is, freedom of speech is you have something to say about some topic, but you dont just say it, you build your statement with facts , facts you believe in, and facts you think are right..thats "freedom of speech" and that will end in responds from others who think diffrently, if you are not allowed to tell your thing, then you are censored.

I'm in this one all the way. |thumb
I have lots more to say about the subject but will wait for later on today while I collect my thoughts. ;)

I agree 100%. These people could have said anything they wanted if they owned the broadcasting source. But since they didn't, the "owners" decided they didn't want what these people were saying going out on their equipment. We are protected from the government against violations of free speech. Free speech doesn't force broadcasters to broadcast things they don't want to.

Now that opie and anthony gave the fcc enough ammunition to start regulating satellite radio, it will most likely become a free speech issue. Right now it's just an employer saying, "Fuck you...we don't like what you did with our equipment, get out". And so far, the government hasn't had a damn thing to do with it.

Very well said and I agree |thumb

I don't think it's a freedom of speech issue either but they are making it one.

So far the government isn't involved and I don't see anything like that in the near future due to other political issues. But what does bother me about all this is the fact that special interest groups have figured out this is an easy way for free publicity (as Greenie pointed out in his first post). What I see is advertisers and broadcasters cratering to these groups and they are the minority.

While it may be true that these can be classified as business decisions, are they wise ones?

I remember a guy named Steve Dahl from back in the late 70's in Chicago. He has been fired from more than a few radio stations for controversy. (I didn't know this until today but Howard Stern actually replaced him at one of the jobs he was fired from in Detroit.) What I don't remember about Steve Dahl is why he was fired or who his advertisers were at the time. I do know that he is still on the air in Chicago and considered a broadcast legend in that area.

I think CBS, other broadcasting companies and their advertisers could learn something from this. They will be the ones losing listeners and in the long run advertising dollars from many sources.

To my mind self-censorship or pre-emptive censorship is possibly the worst kind. "Well, he said this and it might piss off this group so we'll fire his ass"

To me that kind of thinking just contributes to the banality of media. Why shouldn't we hear opinions or jokes that piss us off and give others a laugh? Howard Stern came to Toronto and immediately pissed me off, I didn't stop listening because of anything he said though, I left mostly because my morning station wasn't playing music anymore. The guy's opinions didn't mean jack shit to me, the stations ratings went up, they did lose some sponsors, and I'm sure picked up new ones.
I just don't like being told who or what I can listen to, whether it's by the government, business or special interest groups.

I don't think anyone disagrees that censorship hurts everyone. My only problem is semantics. A violation of Freedom of Speech is always censorship but censorship is not often a violation of Freedom of Speech. If the discussion is about fighting censorship, I am with you. But interchanging the two terms, makes real free speech issues weaker.

The problem is those groups write letters and take action. That's why advertisers listen. If the fans of the shows would take the same approach and write in their own letters, they might get listened to a little more often.

well it looks like XM has buckled in their quest for more $$ .. they suspended O&A for 30 days immediately. Even tho they aren't regulated for content..they still need the approval of the FCC (our gov't) before merging with Sirius.

Un-fucking-believable!! ok i guess really it's not..

It is Un-fucking-beliebable |angry| |angry|

Vote Libertarian |thumb

LMAO..the owner of the company i work for is actually running for president (yes of the USA) on their platform.

on the XM note..i called this morning and canceled my 2 accounts (which I didn't know i could have a shared plan) and of course they asked me why.. so I told the stupid little twit why..then she said..hold on..
told me that it would take at least 1 billing cycle to cancel and that she could authorize me for 4 months free service if i didn't cancel. I told her if one more nickel came out of my account that i would deny the charges and they could sue my phat ass. and Gary Parsons (CEO of XM) can kiss my ass.. she said.. wait for it... Who is Gary Parsons???? LMAO.. |boobies|

but.......
I know this is gonna be unpopular

Imus wasn't done in by the government
it was a reaction of the free market system in reaction to what he said. He had every right to say what he did and the advertisers had every right to say I don't want to be associated with those kinds of comments

also when you work for a company you are a represintive of that company so that company can and should expect you to act a certian way

Ok the part about Imus was a given..commercial AM/FM radio.. but the whole point of satellite is to give an open voice to many different genres that we PAY for to have virtually commercial free.. there is no giving into the sponsors on the part of XM.. it was totally because of the pending merger with Sirius and that the FCC-while it doesn't regulate it like it does for AM/FM radio--it does have a say if the merger can go through. The fact that it would create a monopoly would be a major factor in nixing it but now O&A's remarks about Condi have opened it up to politics..and trust me they have dogged worse about others.. she got off lucky .. so XM buckled to the pending FCC hearing.

Who said he was?

I heard that Gary Parsons r*ped Condi Rice. Pass it on. |thumb

As per our glorious history, tiny groups of humorless cunts are forcing broadcast companies to censor their talent. The advertisers wouldn't otherwise give two fucks what is said by Imus or O&A. The advertisers didn't pull out on Imus because they were personally offended. They reacted the way did because a few anti-free speech vigilantes bullied them with nonsense.

Advertisers and weak-ass broadcast companies have all the right in the world to do whatever they wish. More power to them (cocksuckers). I find it more disturbing that more Americans don't see the real issue or aren't troubled by it. I need to get myself a foil hat so I can sit around not caring about bullshit like this.

That giant sucking sound you are soon to hear are "shorties" and all of us "fatties" moving in mass to Mass.