Argh! So! Conflicted!
May. 16th, 2007 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clodia_risaFor those of you who haven't heard of the Opus and Andy thing - they, who are on XM radio, which claims to be uncensored, made jokes about raping Condaleeza Rice, Laura Bush, and Queen Elizabeth. It was some pretty hateful unfunny stuff. They apologized (apparently half-assed) and made jokes about it the next day. XM suspended them for 30 days. XM has been losing subscribers in swarms because they claim to be "uncensored" and yet they suspended a show for inappropriate comments - aka censorship.
I don't know O&A, but I hear that they are pretty offensive all the time. I just don't know what to think!
On the one hand, raping women is not funny. Also, if these comments had been directly applied to someon (to their face, I mean) I would expect it would be called a threat. On the other hand, they were hired to be horribly offensive, XM claimed to be uncensored, and then didn't follow through with that.
Half of me says: arrrgh! Punish those who threaten violence! Rape is not funny! Imus was fired for (what could be considered) less!
The other half says: It's just words. If we start going after words that are not meant as a threat, in a place which is supposed to be safe for any words, what will happen next? I mean, my words are doubtless horribly offensive to some, but if I was speaking in a place where I wasn't supposed to be punished for what I said, how upset would I be if I was punished anyway. How upset should I be?
I think that I am starting to condemn XM more than O&A. If what I read is true, and XM is supposed to be completely uncensored, then they had no right to suspend that show. Even if what they said was horribly horribly crude, unnecessary, hateful, and offensive. Because we're supposed to support everyone's free speech, not the speech we like.
It is so much easier just to stay enraged at the rape jokes.
I don't know O&A, but I hear that they are pretty offensive all the time. I just don't know what to think!
On the one hand, raping women is not funny. Also, if these comments had been directly applied to someon (to their face, I mean) I would expect it would be called a threat. On the other hand, they were hired to be horribly offensive, XM claimed to be uncensored, and then didn't follow through with that.
Half of me says: arrrgh! Punish those who threaten violence! Rape is not funny! Imus was fired for (what could be considered) less!
The other half says: It's just words. If we start going after words that are not meant as a threat, in a place which is supposed to be safe for any words, what will happen next? I mean, my words are doubtless horribly offensive to some, but if I was speaking in a place where I wasn't supposed to be punished for what I said, how upset would I be if I was punished anyway. How upset should I be?
I think that I am starting to condemn XM more than O&A. If what I read is true, and XM is supposed to be completely uncensored, then they had no right to suspend that show. Even if what they said was horribly horribly crude, unnecessary, hateful, and offensive. Because we're supposed to support everyone's free speech, not the speech we like.
It is so much easier just to stay enraged at the rape jokes.
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no subject
on 2007-05-16 10:05 pm (UTC)I dislike shock jocks as well, but if you're gonna have 'em, support them all the way.