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November 27, 2002
The Register-Guard
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Mail letters to: Political pornography
How did we come to this?
As I write this letter, we are in our third day of unrelenting,
right-wing hate attacks on 10 seconds of a Sen. Tom Daschle observation
that Rush Limbaugh and his wannabes have increased the number of threats
that he and his family have received. For two solid days, and now a
third, the hate radio jocks of America have attacked Daschle in terms
once reserved for back alleys and bathroom graffiti. And all the while,
they pule and whine about their "free speech."
Hate radio is not free speech. Hate radio is the opposite of free
speech. At first blush, the U.S. Supreme Court's classic opinion seems
to defend hate radio: Americans have a "profound national
commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be
uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include
vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on
government and public officials." But, in fact, hate radio is
commercial speech and a type that has the effect of suppressing that
very robust debate that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held is
indispensable to the functioning of our democracy.
Where is the robust debate when Daschle speaks 10 seconds and
Limbaugh fulminates for six hours? (Add the additional dozens of hours
from Rush wannabes such as Lars Larson and Victor Bok!)
The students at the University of Oregon have every right to wonder
how KUGN-AM radio can call itself the "Voice of the Ducks" and
broadcast this political pornography.
HART WILLIAMS |
