On Free Speech and Losing Your Job

Laura Ingraham

It has been an interesting week while I was busy with Easter, posting poetry for Clark’s book and visiting my cardiologist.

People have been fired or disciplined at their jobs for comments they have made on social media or broadcasting channels!  Oh the horror!

First we had Laura Ingraham of  Fox News mocking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg for being rejected by a number of colleges to which he had submitted applications.

“David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.2 GPA… totally predictable given acceptance rates.)”

Ingraham later issued an “apology” in the “spirit of Holy Week” after receiving furious backlash from those who read her tweet.

Hogg had the last laugh.  He responded by listing the twelve largest advertisers on Ingraham’s show and asked those who support stronger gun regulation to contact them and threaten boycott.  Within a week a dozen advertisers fled Ingraham’s show and she took a week off the air  –  a “previously planned” vacation.  She is back on now – probably a bit chastened and wiser.   Besides, I would think that David Hogg could now attend any college he wants; he is however going to take a one year break in order to continue his gun activism.

Parkland kids know – always follow the money.

Ted Nugent

Meanwhile, classic rocker and NRA board member Ted Nugent has attacked Parkland’s teenage school shooting survivors-turned-gun control activists, calling them “mushy brained” and “soulless” liars.  According to Nugent, the Parkland students pushing for tighter gun laws are “poor mushy brained children who have been fed lies” and are “committing spiritual suicide.” As for David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez—two of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High’s most outspoken student survivors—Nugent went so far as to say they are waging a war against ordinary Americans everywhere. “To attack the good law-abiding families of America when well known predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless. These poor children, I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul,” he said.

“No soul.”  “Spiritual suicide.”   Talk about mushy brained.

The NRA was called upon to disavow the comments and  in response a number of companies have set up their own rules for weapons  – some have stopped selling guns entirely; others have banned assault rifles and many have raised the minimum age for purchase from 18 to 21 and/or instigated a three day waiting period.

Follow the money.

This week we move away from guns for a moment and on to the subject of abortion.

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Kevin Williamson

Atlantic magazine announced last week that it had parted ways with recently hired right wing commentator Kevin Williamson.  Williamson, a conservative “intellectual” and former writer for the National Review had been brought on to Atlantic to perhaps give it a broader perspective – it is a well known left leaning periodical and it was willing to give the right a page or two to express opinion on the issue of the day.

“All of this began late last month after left-leaning activists unearthed several Twitter posts by Williamson from September 2014, in which the former National Review writer stated that he opposed abortion “in all circumstances” and that he believed women who had the procedure should be charged with murder. Although generally opposed to capital punishment, Williamson wrote that he believed that in jurisdictions where wanton killing qualified for the death penalty, women who terminated their pregnancies should be treated just the same. “I have hanging more in mind,” he wrote.”

Williamson was terminated after the progressive group Media Matters published a National Review podcast occurring the day after the abortion tweet controversy in which Williamson vigorously  defended treating abortion as a capital crime.

“I would go along with treating it like any other crime – up to and including hanging, while kind of – as I said – I am kind of squishy on capital punishment in general – but I have a soft spot for hanging as a form of capital punishment.’ He added “If the state is going to do violence, let’s make it violence!”

“Abortion is worse than your typical murder!  It’s absolutely premeditated!”

Several months later in March 2015 he told a group of conservative students at Hillsdale College he would prefer to imprison women when, in his ideal future society, abortion is criminalized.

And so he got his ass fired.

And conservatives are up in arms.  You know.  Freedom of speech.  Those lefties shutting down a conservatives right to be heard.  Yawn.

Instead of asserting that Williamson didn’t really say that women should be executed for having an abortion, they assume that he did and that he was let go from Atlantic because the publication couldn’t handle someone with fierce abortion views.  They should have kept him anyway.  Right.

New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz argued that Williamson’s opinions are not the issue – the issue is that centrist or non-partisan journalists must countenance any opinion no matter how offensive.

“In truth Williamson’s opinions are besides the point” she wrote.  “The message couldn’t be clearer.  Conservative opinion is unwelcome in mainstream media.”   Williamson’s sacking is evidence of “left wing intolerance.”

Talk about whining.  It never occurs to consider that his trollish behavior directly contradicts Atlantic’s stated goal of forwarding high level intellectual discussion. It was not what he said; it was the flippant callous way he said it.

Maybe he would appreciate a trip toAfghanistan where he can watch a stoning of women or Saudi Arabia for a public caning.

Jamie Allman – who once worked as a spokesman for the St. Louis Archdiocese!

In closing for today it is worth noting that Jamie Allman, a conservative commentator at a Sinclair-owned television station, resigned after tweeting that he planned to sexually assault Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg with “a hot poker.”

Allman hosted a show on KDNL, a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned ABC affiliate in St. Louis, as well as a morning FM radio show. He lost advertisers after the threat.

Asked if Allman had resigned, Ronn Torossian, a spokesperson for Sinclair, told TheWrap Monday: “Yes, his show is cancelled and he is off the air immediately.

Hogg has become an object of derision among some conservatives because of his aggressive arguments for gun control.

On March 26, Allman tweeted: “When we kick their ass they all like to claim we’re drunk. I’ve been hanging out getting ready to ram a hot poker up David Hogg’s ass tomorrow. Busy working. Preparing.”

Nothing but class. Big swinging dick.  Well maybe just a dick.

Allman’s remark came two days before Fox News host Laura Ingraham posted the tweet accusing Hogg of “whining” about not getting into colleges he applied to.

Allman’s remarks also sparked advertisers to exit, including Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, St. Louis’ Palm Health, and St. Louis real estate office The Gellman Team, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The resignation comes as Sinclair is under fire for requiring anchors to read a script bashing the news media and echoing talking points from President Trump. As a result, Sinclair is the target of a #SinclairStrike movement calling for a one-day walkout on May 15. Activists have also called for a Sinclair boycott.

Sinclair has turned into nothing more than a propaganda outlet for real fake news.

Follow the advertisers.  Follow the money.

P.S. – Today Fox News host Laura Ingraham fired back at activists pushing a boycott of her show The Ingraham Angle, saying they were left-leaning “speech czars” who wanted to suppress political dissent.  “Their efforts are Stalinist, pure and simple. Their objective is a total transformation of American society not through rational discourse and open debate, but through demonization and silencing.”

Hehe.  No Laura.  That’s capitalism.  Follow the money.  Thus far 18 advertisers have pulled ads from your show.

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And for those innocents living in a thermos bottle who have never seen the tripe circulated by right wing commentators, Torritto has been kind enough to find you a relevant sample.  Wash yourself after listening.

(Ha!  Seems the video available yesterday on YouTube  has been taken down!  It was complete right wing trash and deserved to be but I am surprised!)

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