Opie and Anthony - First they came for the Jews
On their XM Radio show, Opie and Anthony had a black fellow rant about raping Condi Rice and doing it to Laura Bush and the Queen of England in the most vulgar fashion.
As a consequence, XM Satellite Radio has suspended Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, hosts of "The Opie & Anthony Show" and ceased broadcast of the show for 30 days, effective immediately.
Now I am not a subscriber to XM radio and so it is none of my business to censor something that people are willing to pay to listen to. I am not a fan of Opie and Anthony and so it is none of my business to tell fans what they can and can't listen to.
But when they came for Imus, I complained. The idiot Neal Boortz calls for Opie and Anthony to be fired yet worries about H.R. 3302, the "Media Ownership Reform Act" which could kill Right Wing Talk Radio.
I am surprised that so many of us have forgotten:
Pastor Martin Niemöller,
First They came for...First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Radio shock jocks Greg "Opie" Hughes, left, and Anthony Cumia, right, greet fans on 57th Street after finishing their first morning show for XM, in this Wednesday, April 26, 2006, file photo in New York. It was just four years ago when the raucous radio duo became were jocks, yanked off the air for their infamous "sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral" stunt. Today, the pair are satellite radio stars and terrestrial radio saviors - doing shows in both formats, and posting big numbers after replacing the disastrous David Lee Roth. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)
It is precisely because of people like Boortz that talk radio will die. The First Amendment was not written to protect beautiful speech, or popular speech, or right wing radio hosts. The First Amendment was written specifically for the most offensive, the most vulgar, the most controversial of speech. I did not listen to Imus nor did I ever listen to Opie and Anthony. But if I refuse to defend them, then I will soon lose my right to listen to Rush, or O'Reilly, or anyone else, in fact.
We already have Universities killing free speech:
Captain's Quarters,
Another University Exception To Free SpeechIf Hamline University used the Soviet method to silence conservative Troy Scheffler last month, Tufts University must have decided to use a softer means to squelch dissent on its campus. Instead of declaring the editors of a conservative newspaper insane, they declared their criticism of Islam "harassment" and treated them like criminals. And as in the Scheffler case, the university apparently didn't like criticism of diversity programs, either:
Showing profound disregard for free speech and freedom of the press, Tufts University has found a conservative student publication guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment for publishing political satire. Despite explicitly promising to protect controversial and offensive expression in its policies, the Tufts Committee on Student Life decided yesterday to punish the student publication The Primary Source (TPS) for printing two articles that offended African-American and Muslim students on campus. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has spearheaded the defense of TPS, is now launching a public campaign to oppose Tufts’ outrageous actions.
Many fans are outraged over the suspension:
Orbitcast,
XM subscribers backlash over O&A suspensionXM subscribers have been reportedly canceling their subscriptions ever since the announcement that Opie & Anthony were suspended mid-day yesterday. The hold times for customer service yesterday escalated from a 30 minute wait, to an 1.5 hour wait, according to those who were on hold to cancel.
So please, dear reader, if something offends thine eye, mind your own f* business, please? Change the channel, switch the station, walk away, avert your eyes, or blog about it if you must, but stop asking for every single host that offends you to be fired. There is nothing wrong with writing that X or Y is horrible or stupid or that you disagree with Z. But if you ask for X, Y, and Z to be fired or censored you may one day find yourself one of those letters. And who will there be to blog in protest over that?
Is HBO next?
