Jay Lake (jaylake) wrote,
Jay Lake
jaylake

[culture|politics] Free speech and whatnot

Let me be clear. I don't care about Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty, or A&E. I think I saw about six minutes of that show once in a hotel lobby, so unlike most cable television products, I have a very slight clue.

Still don't care.

It's a free country. We have this little thing called freedom of speech. Phil Robertson surely has the right to be a wrong-headed, willfully ignorant bigot. If that weren't true, FOX News would have six minutes of weather programming a day and otherwise be nothing but test patterns.

Thanks to corporate personhood, a doctrine generally much beloved of conservatives, A&E surely has the right to manage its image by placing behavioral requirements on its employees and contractors. If that weren't true, FOX News wouldn't even have six minutes of weather programming a day.

Neither Robertson nor A&E has a Constitutional guarantee of freedom of consequence from their acts. This is a point conservatives have pretended much ignorance on the past few years. A&E is free to suspend Robertson. Those who proudly support Robertson's disgraceful racism are free to call for a boycott of A&E.

Number of shits given by me either way: zero.

However, to all those conservatives now up in arms about this alleged travesty of free speech and suppression of legitimate opinion, I have two words:

Dixie Chicks.

Y'all do not have a leg to stand on, my friends. Go find someone else to hate. It's what conservative America does best, after all.

Tags: culture, media, politics
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