In America, the 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech which is the political right to communicate one’s opinions and ideas using one’s body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them. Also included in the 1st Amendment is freedom of religion which is defined as the right to choose a religion (or no religion) and exercise it without interference from the government so long as it does not encroach on other citizens’ rights. There is a minor controversy raging among conservatives and evangelicals over one minor television personality’s right to communicate his opinion based on his religion that the constitutionally challenged have determined is a freedom of speech issue. Whether or not one is inclined towards intellectual masochism by watching A&E’s modern iteration of the Beverly Hillbillies, “Duck Dynasty,” or not, A&E’s decision to suspend one of the show’s stars is not a freedom of speech issue.
The fact that Duck Dynasty’s patriarch, Phil Robertson, was able to voice his bigoted religious opinion and see it in print settles the argument once and for all that his freedom of speech and religion were not interfered with by the government. However, that has not stopped the right-wing from going berserk over A&E, a private entertainment network, exercising their freedom of speech in announcing to their audience that they cut a character from one of their fake reality shows; likely for some sort of breach of contract for damaging the entertainment network’s reputation as tolerant, and arguably supportive, of the gay community. What conservatives fail to acknowledge is that there are no constitutional free speech rights involved in A&E’s decision, except that Sarah Palin, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and a host of bigots at Fox News are attacking A&E for exercising their right to freedom of speech.
It was certain that Palin, as constitutionally challenged as any 2-year old pit bull, would jump on A&E’s decision and claim the network violated Robertson’s freedom of speech. Her claim was particularly hypocritical after she pressured MSNBC’s Phil Griffin to fire Martin Bashir for exercising his freedom of speech. Palin, never one to squander an opportunity to demonstrate why she is, as Martin Bashir said, “America’s dunce” jumped into the fray and warned that “Free speech is an endangered species. Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the ‘Duck Dynasty’ patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.” She also appeared with Fox’s Sean Hannity sporting a Duck Dynasty uniform (camouflage) and said, “A&E, they were absolutely quacks on this one. This is all about freedom, free speech. You know, so many American families have spilled blood and treasure to guarantee Phil Robertson and everybody else’s right to voice their personal opinion and once that freedom is lost everything is lost in our country.”
Comments
Post a Comment