Does the First Amendment not Apply to Helen Thomas?
I'm disappointed to learn that Helen Thomas was abruptly "retired" after recent comments about Israel.
Years ago when I was in college, it was discovered that White Separatist Tom Metzger had been recording public-access cable television shows out of a TV studio in the basement of the campus library. This studio was made available to the local cable company out of an effort to support free speech, but as I learned, free speech applies only if the views expressed fall within the acceptable range.
When this news broke, there were campus protests in which the protesters "stormed" the dean's office to demand that Metzger be no longer welcome on campus. Actually, the dean's staff knew the protesters were coming and pretty much invited them in and showed them to the dean's conference room for a sit-down meeting with the dean.
Not surprisingly, Metzger had to shop for a new studio for his TV show, and the campus was once again clean of hate speech. This episode taught me that while it was OK for someone to be a Ronald Reagan supporter or a Sandinista supporter, any political views you expressed were expected to fall within an acceptable range of political opinion. If they don't, then the First Amendment doesn't apply.
I was never comfortable with the way so-called "hate speech" is dealt with. I'm OK with the label "hate speech" as some speech is indeed hateful, but I object to the use of the "hate speech" label as a way to end discussion and shut someone up. All ideas should be up for intelligent discussion and criticism regardless of if they are hateful or not, and no one should be persecuted for expressing an unpopular opinion.
This past week, opinion Columnist Helen Thomas made some remarks about Israel saying that the land belongs to Palestinian Arabs and that Jewish Israelis should go home to Poland, Germany or the United States. This is a political view which many people strongly disagree with, and one which I personally disagree with, but to fire her and call her a hateful bigot is dishonoring the First Amendment.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, paraphrasing Voltaire
Years ago when I was in college, it was discovered that White Separatist Tom Metzger had been recording public-access cable television shows out of a TV studio in the basement of the campus library. This studio was made available to the local cable company out of an effort to support free speech, but as I learned, free speech applies only if the views expressed fall within the acceptable range.
When this news broke, there were campus protests in which the protesters "stormed" the dean's office to demand that Metzger be no longer welcome on campus. Actually, the dean's staff knew the protesters were coming and pretty much invited them in and showed them to the dean's conference room for a sit-down meeting with the dean.
Not surprisingly, Metzger had to shop for a new studio for his TV show, and the campus was once again clean of hate speech. This episode taught me that while it was OK for someone to be a Ronald Reagan supporter or a Sandinista supporter, any political views you expressed were expected to fall within an acceptable range of political opinion. If they don't, then the First Amendment doesn't apply.
I was never comfortable with the way so-called "hate speech" is dealt with. I'm OK with the label "hate speech" as some speech is indeed hateful, but I object to the use of the "hate speech" label as a way to end discussion and shut someone up. All ideas should be up for intelligent discussion and criticism regardless of if they are hateful or not, and no one should be persecuted for expressing an unpopular opinion.
This past week, opinion Columnist Helen Thomas made some remarks about Israel saying that the land belongs to Palestinian Arabs and that Jewish Israelis should go home to Poland, Germany or the United States. This is a political view which many people strongly disagree with, and one which I personally disagree with, but to fire her and call her a hateful bigot is dishonoring the First Amendment.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, paraphrasing Voltaire
posted by Dancar | 1:30 PM
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