Re: Free speech, etc. (Was . . . Sebastian to the beach)

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Eric Jacobs wrote:
>I feel a need to point out that as broadcasters,what you personally call
>"misogynist racism" is someone else's favorite radio show (not mine),
>and as such,a little tolerance might be in order. Remember First
>Amendment,tuning knobs and off switches?
<snip>

        Certainly he was a lot of people's favorite radio show, but I have
no tolerance for it. Stern and all the imitators, like Sebastian, are
negative influences on society, IMO, and it's important to speak against
that rubbish, whether or not it's popular. Others are free to disagree with
me. Is this a great country, or what?

        On the First Amendment, I always find it interesting that whenever
a talk host or shock jock is criticized, those two words come back from
someone. I honestly don't get the connection. A critic of these radio hosts
is using First Amendment rights to criticize them. Are these hosts supposed
to be exempt from criticism? Or, do some people jump to the conclusion that
a critical comment about Stern, or another radio host, automatically means
I or someone else who is criticizing believe the government should take
them off the air. I certainly don't believe that at all.

         In addition, in these cases, such as when someone like Greaseman
gets fired, talking about the First Amendment is not relevant. Whatever
First Amendment  rights there are in broadcasting (much more now than in
the old days of heavy regulation) belong to the licensee of the station,
not to an employee. If the licensee decides, for example, that a show host
is bad for business because he is making racist comments and alienating the
community and just generally causing trouble for the licensee--i.e., the
company might make less money--and it fires him, it's the same as when a
jock gets fired in a format change.

        It's the same as the old one-liner about freedom of the press /
First Amendment in the newspaper business: Freedom of the press belongs to
those who own one.

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