Friday, April 3, 2009

Freedom of Speech or Hate Speech

Talk Radio consists mostly of a Political nature. Sure you have Sports, Dining, Gardening and even Financial Shows. But the main theme, to most talk shows, is Politics. Now, there is the Left Wing and the Right Wing. In some cases you might have something in between but, it will probably champion either the Democratic or Republican cause. Due to the age of computer streaming I can listen to any city coast to coast and hear a potpourri of shows.

Living in the Boston area, I am a member of what is called the best and brightest. The station trends towards the conservative view. Though there is an offering to the Liberal as well. I can attribute, much of my recent years of knowledge, from listening to this station. Their have been times when I laughed, reflected thoughtfully and outright changed the channel, due to aggravation of what I was hearing. But, I understood the individuals’ right to freedom of speech. I also realized that these individuals, in a sense, are Entertainers.

For example, during the Presidential Campaign, I felt the right of free speech could have been taken too far. John McCain and Sarah Palin, began to go out of their way in suggesting, Barack Obama was a Terrorist. You could see the crowds easily taken up by this. Thank God, a cooler head prevailed and John McCain realized what he was doing and dispelled the belief. But, what if he had not? Suppose if he and Sarah Palin continued down that road. Suppose if such a state of “frenzy”, was developed to the point, a tragedy occurred. Would the Republican Party have shown remorse? Should they have? What if the roles were reversed? Would the Democratic Party feel the same?

Freedom of Speech is a very precious freedom that we should do everything we can to preserve. Soldiers have given their lives for this freedom. But this freedom can be abused, like most things. The problem with this abuse is some people can be lead to believe something and not realize the sensationalism being injected, for no reason more than to gain ratings. This, injected in the direction of the wrong person, could be tragic.

I enjoy Talk Radio. It is educational as well as entertaining. I just think that Talk Show Hosts need to fully understand the influence they carry and take better responsibility for the content they produce. Sometimes, I do not think they do. I will always fight to preserve the right of free speech but, I will always advocate responsibility. The responsibility that goes along with this right.

That’s how I feel.

1 comment:

  1. I agree completely and let me take this to the next logical step: 1) there should be some legislation presented and of course passed making it illegal for anyone to call themselves "NEWS" if they interject opinion in any form. This is not hard to identify as some may feel immediatley that this is a subjective task but I assure you with just a few years of training in any college or institution of higher learning or anyone that chooses to practice common sense regularly (which should be the people we elect right?) can easily detect fact from opinion or we don't re-elect them. 2) make any agency or show on that agency that does not fit the catagory of "NEWS" state as a disclaimer prior to starting the program or the host regularly states throughout the show that this is the persons opinion. Perhaps regulate this by requiring all written scripts to be submitted to a commitee at the FCC if there is a reported violation. What I mean is that after every topic is discussed the person should state clearly that this is their personal view on any given subject. I know on the cover this seems to be borderline sensorship but that is not true and in fact this is a form of regulation for those that have found a way to use the constitution in a manner to defraud or do a disservice to our country to promote a political agenda. You know some might even see this current irresponsibility as TREASON...thats just my thought!

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