Xoff’s Double Standard on Free Speech

Leftist Bill Christofferson, on Uppity Wisconsin, has a post huffing and puffing about how Charlie Sykes is a big bully.

As the story goes:

Richard Abdoo is the CEO of Wisconsin Energy Corp., based in Milwaukee. Earlier this fall, Abdoo sent a $250 check to the peace group Not in Our Name (www.notinourname.net).

As a result, his name was listed as one of the 30,000 endorsers of the group’s “Statement of Conscience Against War and Repression.” And he was identified as “Chairman of the Board, president and CEO, Wisconsin Energy Corp.” Abdoo said the donation was strictly a personal one.

Sykes, like other talk radio hosts, attacked Abdoo for the contribution, and after a considerable public uproar, Abdoo sent out an e-mail apologizing for having made it.

For Christofferson, this is about how “right-wing talk radio, which -- aided and abetted by the squishy local newspaper -- used the airwaves to shut up a dissenting voice in Milwaukee.”

The logic here is so bad that a poster quickly provided a little lesson in what free speech really means.

Let me see if I have this straight.

Mr. Abdoo choose to exercise his first amendment rights and support a group of people who are opposed to the war.

Mr. Sykes choose to exercise his first amendment rights and spoke out negatively against Mr. Abdoo and his political views.

A group of citizens choose to not economically support the company Mr. Abdoo works for because of his political views.

Let’s take them one at a time.

Mr. Abdoo supported a certain political view and then was held accountable for it. That is how it works. We do have the right to free speech but we also may be held accountable for it. If you tell your wife that her jeans make her butt look big, you will be held accountable. I have never understood why people think the first amendment should protect them from the things they say. . . .

Mr. Sykes used his popularity to express his concern over Mr. Abdoo’s political views. That is what radio hosts do. And Mr. Sykes is held accountable for what he says. If people stop listening to his show, the sponsors will stop sending the station money. But people do listen so they must like what they hear or at least respect Mr. Sykes right to say them.

100 – 150 people contacted Wisconsin Energy to express their concern. That is what consumers do. We choose where and with whom we will spend our dollars. . . . My wife and I recently left a car lot because we did not like something the salesman said. We bought a car somewhere else. He had every right to say what he said, and we had every right to go somewhere else. Not only do we have the freedom of speech in this country, we also have the freedom of choice.

And how does any of this have anything to do with the Patriot Act? The first amendment has around since before 911.

And then there is this.

“We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for.”

For some reason, Mr. Abdoo’s questioning, criticism and dissent must be protected and Mr. Sykes questioning, criticism and dissent must be stopped.

But it gets worse.

Deeply skeptical that Christofferson really believes that people should be able to say anything without consequences, we searched the blog for “Don Imus.”

And of course we found a post by Christofferson’s cohort RKing on the shock jock.

NBC drops racist Imus

General Motors pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
American Express pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
Sprint pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
Nextel pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
GlaxoSmithKline pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
TD Ameritrade pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.
Ditech.com pulled their advertising dollars away from racist hate.

So, who is putting advertising dollars into Rush’s vulgar hate show?
So, who is putting advertising dollars into Hannity’s vulgar hate show?
So, who is putting advertising dollars into O’Reilly’s vulgar hate show?
So, who is putting advertising dollars into FOX Whore News in general?
So, who is putting advertising dollars into any racist and vulgar hate show?

CBS fires Imus from radio Now let’s go after Rush, Hannity etc...

If somebody could corner Christofferson on this, we’re pretty sure that he would explain that what Richard Abdoo did was . . . well . . . good, and therefore he should not face any flack because of it. But on the other hand, Imus (like Rush and Hannity and O’Reilly and Fox News) is evil, and thus it was good to take his job away.

The simple truth, of course, is that there is a nasty strain of authoritarianism among 21st century liberals. They simply can’t abide nor tolerate views different from their own, and they can’t accept that the rules that apply to everybody else apply to them.