Reply #63: One clarification - something can be a free speech isssue [View All]

[bryant69]

without being a first amendment issue. I

For example Barnes and Noble might decide to not order any of Michael Moore's books or to hide them in the humor section. That would be, in my opinion, a free speech issue, while not being a first amendment. Barnes and Noble is a private bookseller; they aren't regulated by the Government per se. But choosing to not carry Michael Moore's book is questionable in terms of free speech.

In this case you are apparently trying to organizing a boycott of Rush Limbaugh's sponsors in an effort to drive him off the air. Such an attempt is entirely legal, and for that matter constitutional. It doesn't violate the First Amendment. But it is an attempt to eliminate Rush Limbaugh's ability to speak. In that sense it is a violation of his free speech. You have every right to do it, but I find such attempts worth fighting against.

I cut my teeth on this issue back when I was on the Ann Coulter message board (and they hated me more than people around here hate me) debating Jon Alveraz the founder of PABAAH (Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti American Hollywood (spoofed on the Daily Show)). I argued that his attempt to set up a freelance Conservative blacklist against such anti Americans as Cuba Gooding Jr. or Johnny Depp was un-American (I used stronger language over there for obvious reasons). This attempt is a bit less organized, but I disagree with it just as strongly.

Let me clarify something else; I don't do this out of support for Rush Limbaugh. I can't stand Rush Limbaugh and I've attacked him at my website regularly over the years (A few examples --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com/Best%20Posts%202002%20to%202004%20Rush.htm )

I also want to refer again to the most important question - what if you succeed? What if you knock Rush out? What would happen to the mechanism you have created to knock Rush out?

Bryant