Thursday, January 4, 2007

Fighting the Fight

Spocko, of Spocko's Brain, seems to have stirred up quite the shitstorm with the fine folks at Disney/ABC regarding their hate speakers at KSFO Radio in San Francisco.

As I say, the Media is one of our problems today, a pillar of Demcoracy, like Organized Labor, a pillar that has been co-opted by the corporations to the detriment of democracy and this country. Just giving a pass, of ignoring hate speech like the garbage Spocko is fighting against does not serve us well in this land. Poisoning the airwaves for fun and profit is far from what I would consider a productive use of my airwaves, and I'm with him in trying to change the discourse from hate, to acceptance and freedom.

So I'm doing my part, by linking this post (again), by writing some letters to advertisers, and by supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

And I'll leave you with this excerpt from another letter Spocko wrote, to Netflix.

In the past, like many people, I chose to ignore the rants of these people, I did as many suggested and changed the dial or turned it off. Friends said, "It's just talk radio, they are just radio hosts. What's the big deal?" I'd like to mention three names to you: Hassan Ngeze, Ferdinand Nahimana, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. Maybe you've never heard of them, but the three Rwandans were convicted of genocide for media reports that fostered the killing of about 800,000 Rwandans , mostly of the Tutsi minority, over several months in 1994.

How did I hear about these people? In a movie I rented from Netflix called " Hotel Rwanda." Seeing those radio hosts inciting violence chilled me to the bone, as I'm sure it would most people.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you really believe that one should be able to violate federal law and steal the private property of others?

Do you really believe that only those who share the views of that one anonymous blogger should be entitled to free speech?

Because the post you wrote indicates these are your beliefs. Free speech is for everyone, not just for the anonymous blogger. Just because he disagreed with the views of another American, he has no right to try to thwart their own right of free speech. Just because he disagrees with their views, doesn't give him the entitlement to steal their protected property.

If he truly believes in what he is stating, he would stand up with his real name. He made a conscious choice to have his blog closed down by refusing to remove the illegal matter on it. It didn't belong to him, it belonged to others and he didn't have the consideration to ask to use it.

He was given seven days to remove the illegal matter and he CHOSE not to do it, fully knowing his blog would be closed down.

If you really believe what the blogger did was moral and right, then, I fear, you believe in facism, because that is exactly what he was doing--engaging in facism.

I, for one, feel no sympathy for him. He does not represent ethical bloggers

spocko said...

Anonymous said...

If he truly believes in what he is stating, he would stand up with his real name.

Spoken like a true hero of free speech, "Mr. Anonymous."

You are wrong on the facts of this case. As they said over at FireDogLake, this is rock solid fair use. At least you corrected your spelling errors with the repeat of this post. So you got that going for ya.

Duckman GR on the other hand, YOU are a friend and I can tell you that Spocko appreciates all his friends, especially the early adopters.

iamcoyote said...

Okay, I finally put up my post - thanks for the reminder, Duckman, even if I'm coming late to the party, as usual.

Anonymous said...

As Mr. notes, this is a pretty clear case of protected speech using the fair use laws, and stealing is a pretty inaccurate discription.

As for it being "private property," please, it's commercial property, if it were private nobody would know anything about it.

And I think you might want to look into the meaning of fascism, your use of the term suggests a fair lack of knowledge on the word.

That's one of the tactics I've noticed being used by the right wingers, they like to try to co-opt a term or thought phrase that's being used by the left, without the slightest bit of knowledge or understanding of its meaning. So yeah, call it fascism, oh anonymous one, as if using the word makes it so.

I could do the same to you, by calling your comment intelligent, but, alas, that would be an inaccurate usage of teh word, and something as dirty hippies try not to do.

Seven of Six said...

You gotta be kidding, right Anonymous?

If you really believe what the blogger did was moral and right, then, I fear, you believe in facism, because that is exactly what he was doing--engaging in facism.

And bu$h listening in on phone coversations, opening your mail and holding people in detention centers without due process is not (correct spelling) fascism.

Talk about violating federal law.