Two quickies: A woman was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for refusing to take off a shirt that showed Bush administration officials with the headline "Meet the Fuckers" (a take-off on the film Meet the Fokkers). And a North Carolina high school student got a visit from the Secret Service after a Wal-Mart photo lab employee narced him out for having taken a photo of a magazine image of the president he'd hung on the wall with a thumb tack. Ironically, the photo was part of an assignment for social studies class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights.” What's most surprising about these cases is corporate America's happy willingness to be complicit in stripping rights from citizens.
10.05.2005
Free speech in America.
Two quickies: A woman was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for refusing to take off a shirt that showed Bush administration officials with the headline "Meet the Fuckers" (a take-off on the film Meet the Fokkers). And a North Carolina high school student got a visit from the Secret Service after a Wal-Mart photo lab employee narced him out for having taken a photo of a magazine image of the president he'd hung on the wall with a thumb tack. Ironically, the photo was part of an assignment for social studies class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights.” What's most surprising about these cases is corporate America's happy willingness to be complicit in stripping rights from citizens.
Gotta be more careful these days. Freedom ain't what it used to be.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were pissed about the copyright infringment.
ReplyDeleteMaybe. The Global War on Piracy?
ReplyDeleteHypothetical situation: You're on a bus with your kids and somebody walks on with a shirt that says Fuck, Shit,Cock,Dick or any other obscene word. How would you feel? This has nothing to do with Freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteGWOP!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo why is it you feel you can say fuck, shit, cock, and dick on my blog--a free, all-ages, public site--but this woman can't, on a flight she paid for, wear a shirt where, in the context of political satire, the word "fuckers" is used?
ReplyDeleteAnd the question: "How would you feel" is irrelevant. Free speech laws aren't made so you feel comfortable at all times; they protect unpopular speech.
paul