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Cimarron29414 · 11-02-2010, 01:25 PM

rb-

I suppose I was responding to the suggestion that speech such as what Juan said should be determined by the government to be "hate speech" and that there should be some punishment put down by the government. That is something I would oppose for fear that one day our protest, whatever it is, would be deemed the same and squashed.

It is unfortunate that what he said wasn't soundly rejected by both sides, and that was the end of it. Frankly, I think NPR was a little to quick on the draw. If they had delayed their decision, I think it would have probably played out with Juan apologizing and we all would have been back to business as usual. It was only in the firing, that all of this has risen to scandal. Everyone in the media jumped to sides a little too early, and the sides are a little too extreme.

We have given privately to NPR for several years because I believe they have a place in our nation - that and Fiona on Thistle and Shamrock. I have struggled with the federal funding issue because it conflicts with "my role of federal government" versus "the public need to promote the arts".

I tend to have difficulty with what NPR did in this matter because it was for political speech that they sacked him. By political, I mean it was political context, not the actual bigoted statement. So, while I like the idea of some public funding for arts, NPR does have quite a bit of politics on their air and it does start to rub me that public funds goes to it and that they then censored their political speech, in a way, on a publicly funded airwave. Overall, I think the benefit of having their arts available outweighs my distaste for the existence of politics in their realm - that and Fiona.

11-02-2010, 01:25 PM	#162 (permalink)
Cimarron29414 Still Free Location: comfortably perched at the top of the bell curve!	rb- I suppose I was responding to the suggestion that speech such as what Juan said should be determined by the government to be "hate speech" and that there should be some punishment put down by the government. That is something I would oppose for fear that one day our protest, whatever it is, would be deemed the same and squashed. It is unfortunate that what he said wasn't soundly rejected by both sides, and that was the end of it. Frankly, I think NPR was a little to quick on the draw. If they had delayed their decision, I think it would have probably played out with Juan apologizing and we all would have been back to business as usual. It was only in the firing, that all of this has risen to scandal. Everyone in the media jumped to sides a little too early, and the sides are a little too extreme. We have given privately to NPR for several years because I believe they have a place in our nation - that and Fiona on Thistle and Shamrock. I have struggled with the federal funding issue because it conflicts with "my role of federal government" versus "the public need to promote the arts". I tend to have difficulty with what NPR did in this matter because it was for political speech that they sacked him. By political, I mean it was political context, not the actual bigoted statement. So, while I like the idea of some public funding for arts, NPR does have quite a bit of politics on their air and it does start to rub me that public funds goes to it and that they then censored their political speech, in a way, on a publicly funded airwave. Overall, I think the benefit of having their arts available outweighs my distaste for the existence of politics in their realm - that and Fiona. __________________ Gives a man a halo, does mead. "Here lies The_Jazz: Killed by an ambitious, sparkly, pink butterfly." Last edited by Cimarron29414; 11-02-2010 at 01:33 PM..