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

From: Strabo (strabo_at_flashnet.com)
Date: 07/19/04 

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 18:59:41 GMT

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 13:54:06 GMT, Sonof Ravenson
<theskald@pacbell.net> wrote:

>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.

A couple of points.

To be clear, the enumerated rights of the Constitution apply to
individuals not a business or corporation.

Clear Channel is in a gray area of public accomodation similar
to that of a business in a shopping mall. In this case the
individual radio and TV stations and CC holds FCC licenses which
gives the Feds certain latitude over speech and behavior by
individuals using such a license.

The Feds have forced accomodation on political issues before
and have censored licensees.

Relevant Pages