Re: Banned billboard -- Soviet Stalinist State of AmeriKKKa Censors Free Speech while erecting KGB-Homeland-Security-Apparatus

From: Sonof Ravenson (theskald_at_pacbell.net)
Date: 07/16/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 13:54:06 GMT

Psalm 110 wrote:

> POLITICAL WATCH
> Banned billboard
> Thursday, July 15, 2004
> San Francisco Chronicle
> Chronicle Sections
>
> News flash: Project Billboard, a group of Bay Area women started by
> chef Alice Waters, thought it had a deal to display an anti-war
> message in Times Square during the Republican National Convention in
> September. But the billboard owner, a division of Clear Channel
> Communications, abruptly decided the cartoonish bomb image on the
> display would be inappropriate in New York City.
>
> Background: Since when has Clear Channel worried about propriety and
> taste? This is the same media mega-company that owns local radio
> station KNEW and put a huge billboard of Scott Peterson along Highway
> 101 (just as the jury was about to be selected) with the words "Man or
> Monster?" in huge letters -- along with a toll-free number for a
> call-in poll.
>
> Upshot: There are several disturbing aspects to this story. For one,
> it is a sad commentary on the state of free speech in this country
> when an anti- war message (with the words "Democracy is best taught by
> example, not by war") is blocked because it includes an illustration
> of a bomb. Also, it underscores the danger to dissenting voices when
> one media company becomes too dominant. Fast-growing Clear Channel
> owns or operates more than 1,200 radio stations, 39 television
> stations and has 776,000 billboards worldwide. Clear Channel should
> show its commitment to free expression by allowing the anti-war
> billboard, uncensored.

Only the government can censor, Clear Channel isn't the government.
A private business refusing to publish something is merely exercising
it's right to publish what it chooses, a right guaranteed by the 1st
amendment to the US Constitution.

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