Loading ...The Huffington Post reports that Geico has pulled its ads from the Glenn Beck program. The author of the article is bragging about his petition signed by 75,000 people to urge sponsors to pull their ads from Beck’s program. This is typical of liberals and has been done by Wendi C. Thomas of the Commercial Appeal and countless others. They cannot stand that the RIGHT has a platform with which to speak from so they do their best to silence this dissent, while Maher, Moore and countless others spew their slop unabated. I despise what the left is vomiting, but I also respect their right to splatter the sidewalk with their trash. Do not watch his show if you do not like it as I refuse to watch the ones I do not like.
Respect my rights as I do yours. If you continue to deny us our rights we will take them and I can guarantee the Right is way more prepared than the Left in any conflict. You may have more criminals, but do not let that fool you into a false sense of security. I am scared this is going to get ugly before long and no one wants this kind of unrest. This is the greatest nation on the planet and we should conduct ourselves as citizens of the greatest nation on the planet.
Austin
Well, it is a very valid tool to use. It is only effective because 150,000 conservatives did not sign a petition asserting the opposite.
…That just isn’t how freedom of speech works.
The freedom of speech afforded to you and to Mr. Beck by the Constitution protects you from being censored by the government. And if, for instance, Congress passed a bill making it illegal to sponsor the Glenn Beck program, that would obviously be a gross violation of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
But having the freedom to say something is not the same as having freedom from the consequences of one’s speech. Quite the contrary – it guarantees the right of everyone to tell Mr. Beck (or me or you) that the things we say are wrong, offensive, factually inaccurate, or disgusting. And it guarantees the right of everyone told this to agree or to disagree publically.
The petition in question is an expression of the freedom of speech, the speech of those offended by Beck. Geico’s decision to stop sponsoring Beck is just the same – they’re saying publically that they aren’t comfortable financially backing the guy.
To say that anyone involved in this altercation is violating anyone else’s rights is to reveal a complete and total misunderstanding of what the freedom of speech guarantees America’s citizens. We all have the right to say what we want, within the limits of safety and legality, and everyone else has the right to take us to task for what we choose to say, within those very same limits.
Amazing Allen, you have posted a comment I agree with. I think Austin’s point is that lefties are pro-active to silence Beck through boycott instead of simply voicing their dissent. It is something of a double-standard and that is the thesis of the post (guess you missed that).
Conservatives and moderates have done the same thing with CNN, MSNBC, etc. We have simply turned them off and turned to FOX for our news and commentary. It is simply a choice of preference, and not a ‘boycott’. Likewise, if Geico wishes to listen to the Looney left and stop advertising on Beck’s show, there will be someone else to pick up the spot since it is one of the hottest shows in the time slot right now. In the meantime, Geico will lose customer base and regret listening to the looney toons. Simple market forces resolve the matter.
Now we could organize a mass emailing/phone call campaign to counter, or we can just change our Geico policy when renewal time comes. For me, that will be my choice.
The simple point was JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT LIKE IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHUT IT DOWN. You can turn off the TV, change the radio station, not read the book, paper or magazine. You might not like it, but someone out there does and people have the right to decide for themselves what they find safe for their own consumption.