Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [128]
To combat persecution politics, the boycott should be expanded beyond Glenn Beck. We should press companies to refuse to advertise on any program with inflammatory content, as Kraft Foods has done, or even to avoid Fox News entirely as long as it hosts such content, as Apple and Nestlé have done.20 But let’s also be clear about the objective. The goal must not be to eliminate conservative opinions or even biased journalism from the media but to curb the paranoid and intolerant rhetoric that many of the top conservative commentators have been promoting.
For the record, Fox News is not the only offender on cable. Pat Buchanan hosted CNN’s Crossfire for years and is now a commentator on MSNBC. And in 2003, MSNBC offered a weekly show to Michael Savage—one of the nastiest bigots on the radio. MSNBC’s president described Savage as “brash, passionate and smart” and promised that he would provide “compelling opinion and analysis with an edge.”21 A few months later, MSNBC fired the brash, passionate, smart Savage after he told a gay caller, “Oh, you’re one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig.”22
Back at CNN, host Lou Dobbs began mixing anti-immigrant hostility with conspiracy theories about the North American Union, the Mexican Reconquista, and Obama’s birth certificate. After outcries from liberals, Dobbs resigned in 2009 in order to, as he explained, “engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day.”23 CNN replaced him with Erick Erickson, a right-wing blogger who received renown for his gracious send-off to retiring Justice David Souter, delivered via Twitter: “The nation loses the only goat fucking child molester to ever serve on the Supreme Court.”de24
The trouble is that inflammatory content sells. MSNBC hired Savage after circulating an internal memo warning that “our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”25 Media outlets compete with one another to hire commentators who can out-flame those of their competitors, creating a vicious cycle of ever-increasing viciousness.df It’s time for the American people to apply the brakes to the cycle using the power of the marketplace. Just say no to media thugs.
Freedom of Speech
Right-wing leaders object to the use of such tactics against corporations, of course (unless the corporations are denigrating the spirit of Christmas, in which case they deserve it). For example, Glenn Beck warned, “Our rights are slipping away. They are trying to squelch free speech through mockery, intimidation, intimidation of advertisers, the Internet—anyway they can.”26
But let’s talk about freedom of speech for a moment. In their zeal to present examples of conservative persecution, right-wing leaders often conflate criticism of their opinions with government censure. Recall Bill O’Reilly’s complaint that media critics violated his First Amendment rights—“I don’t care about the law. My rights were violated here because they tried to punish me for my speech. It’s happening all over the place.” O’Reilly got it backward, however. Government censorship of his opinions would violate the First Amendment; criticism of his opinions is protected by the First Amendment.
Such criticism is not only protected, it is important for a healthy society. In addition to laws and moral and religious standards, fear of stigmatization keeps people from violating societal norms. Taken to an extreme, social control can result in a repressive society, but that does not mean that all social control is repressive. Indeed, it’s impossible for a society to function without it. We’ve all grown up within a rich network of social norms that proscribe