Another good lesson from this is that justice in the US is different for African-Americans. Amanda Knox might have received life in prison (in accordance with your point about a flaw in our justice system), but can anyone imagine her even originally receiving the death penalty, as Troy Davis did?
Thanks for posting this. Bill O'Reilly (who one could argue is really leading the "freedom of speech" crusade) also reacted to that event; here's the transcript:
"But there is a freedom of speech component here, Michelle. And, you know, that —- in America, we are a land and a people that embrace controversial speech. We don't like censorship at all. And that's what held him up so long. But, once that basketball coach got out there and explained in vivid detail how painful this was, it was over for Mr. Imus."
It seems that for Mr. O'Reilly, "freedom of speech" does not mean you can't get fired from your job for making hateful, racist remarks -- unless one is making them about Muslims, of course. Another disturbing element to much of the defense of Williams is the fact that the old "he's just saying what we're all thinking" line is being heavily used. As someone who's not thinking that, it's almost kind of offensive.
Good stuff. It might also be interesting to point out the irony in the fact that NPR will undoubtedly air a considerably wider range of opinion regarding its own firing of Williams than pretty much any mainstream news source.
Good point about the "free speech" issue. Of course nobody was defending Williams' despicable comments; I for one just wanted to hear your take on that piece of the argument.
Another good lesson from this is that justice in the US is different for African-Americans. Amanda Knox might have received life in prison (in accordance with your point about a flaw in our justice system), but can anyone imagine her even originally receiving the death penalty, as Troy Davis did?
The Octavia Nasr comment wasn't racist, so it's not as simple as "pressure from the left, pressure from the right" in the case you cited.
Thanks for posting this. Bill O'Reilly (who one could argue is really leading the "freedom of speech" crusade) also reacted to that event; here's the transcript:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265873,00.html
Here's the best part:
"But there is a freedom of speech component here, Michelle. And, you know, that —- in America, we are a land and a people that embrace controversial speech. We don't like censorship at all. And that's what held him up so long. But, once that basketball coach got out there and explained in vivid detail how painful this was, it was over for Mr. Imus."
It seems that for Mr. O'Reilly, "freedom of speech" does not mean you can't get fired from your job for making hateful, racist remarks -- unless one is making them about Muslims, of course. Another disturbing element to much of the defense of Williams is the fact that the old "he's just saying what we're all thinking" line is being heavily used. As someone who's not thinking that, it's almost kind of offensive.
Good stuff. It might also be interesting to point out the irony in the fact that NPR will undoubtedly air a considerably wider range of opinion regarding its own firing of Williams than pretty much any mainstream news source.
Good point about the "free speech" issue. Of course nobody was defending Williams' despicable comments; I for one just wanted to hear your take on that piece of the argument.