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It is my understanding that this board's stance is that censorship is bad- I would like to think that this sentiment applies to all forms of free speech not just in regard to pornography, no matter how unsavory those words may be.



How do you define censorship?

Heidi said this:

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And political correctness IS a scourge. It tethers free thought and open debate by outlawing ideas as "inappropriate" or "insensitive". It's the worst kind of covert thought-policing.



As I understand the situation, nothing was 'outlawed' and nothing was censored. This is a situation of balancing market forces. The athletes don't have the national platform that Imus has, and can't really fight back. Sharpton does (leaving aside the fact that he is a charlatan).

As a result, the athletes got an opportunity to speak and they said "Fuck you Imus, and fuck the companies that do business with you. If you continue to support Imus we will use our free speech to organize boycotts of your businesses and to call you racist."

So my position is entirely the same as yours, that
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Yes, Imus' dismissal was justified, and the smart thing for the network to do from a PR standpoint.



I agree that Imus (and every other crackpot moron) should be free to say whatever the hell they want, but that doesn't mean that the subjects of their diatribe have only two choices (listen or turn it off). They have another choice too - bitch and moan, organize and fight back using whatever free speech rights and market leverage available to them.

Censorship would be the government sending Imus to Gitmo for 5 years to stop him from talking.

A more immediate XPT-specific example, would be the banning or threatened banning of Raoul, Darth and um YOU! You shouldn't be banned because you say idiotic things that clutter up the board - that's censorship; however, if everyone else lobbied Jeff and Malice, threatened to start a new board or to otherwise make trouble for them, they would gas all three of you without hesitation. That's not censorship - that's managing your brand.

As a final note, in answer to your comment that:

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You live in the United States of America.



Actually I don't, although I do prefer your pornography and football to ours.


Edited by soopergrizz (04/18/07 04:28 PM)
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