Hello, all.
I re-read my last post and feel the need to do a little qualifying. And, as a bonus, tag on a question or two for your consideration.
The qualification? I should have said that Imus' firing made it a rough week for him, not a rough week for me.
I did not find it pleasant to hear, over and over again, what it is that he said (because it was, to my hearing, ugly and demeaning and entirely lacking in sense) but that did not make my week rough.
It is just that Mr. Imus' firing opens some interesting questions about the limits of publicly-acceptable speech. Where I might personally find his words objectionable, I might still be called-upon to provide access to them (and words like them) in the library setting.
Here is that question for your consideration:
Is firing someone a more or less acceptable response to objectionable speech than prosecuting them?
Follow-up question:
Which action is more likely to result in such speech not being repeated?
As for Vonnegut's death? That was hard on me. I loved his writing.
AB
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Rough Week
It was a rough week.
However one might characterize the comments Don Imus made about the Rutgers basketball team, he did actually lose his job for exercising his right to free speech. While what he said was not qualitatively different than things he had said in the past, this time his employer felt he had gone too far. This same sort of humor had in past earned Mr. Imus a devoted following and a lot of money. So what happened?
As morally outraged as I felt hearing Imus' comments, it is the reaction to them that has me worried.
I could not help but feel that "chilling effect" in my blood when I read the statement from CBS President Les Moonves, defending Imus' firing as a necessary blow against "a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people." A chill because while I cannot listen to Imus' program for long, I am a fan of a few other programs many people find objectionable: South Park, Bill Maher, Howard Stern (when I am in the right mood), and most-recently, Borat.
Time Magazine did a reasonably-fine job asking "Who Can Say What?" The article is online and worth your time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1609490,00.html
It was also a rough week for those of us who read and loved the work of Kurt Vonnegut. His Slaughterhouse Five is among the 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-2001, as reported by ALA. I read the book in high school because it was on so many best lists and because it had a reputation for being edgy. When I read it, I did not get the edge so much as that overwhelming feeling of despair, shared by so many readers before me and since.
Onward to post your Week 4 lectures.
AB
However one might characterize the comments Don Imus made about the Rutgers basketball team, he did actually lose his job for exercising his right to free speech. While what he said was not qualitatively different than things he had said in the past, this time his employer felt he had gone too far. This same sort of humor had in past earned Mr. Imus a devoted following and a lot of money. So what happened?
As morally outraged as I felt hearing Imus' comments, it is the reaction to them that has me worried.
I could not help but feel that "chilling effect" in my blood when I read the statement from CBS President Les Moonves, defending Imus' firing as a necessary blow against "a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people." A chill because while I cannot listen to Imus' program for long, I am a fan of a few other programs many people find objectionable: South Park, Bill Maher, Howard Stern (when I am in the right mood), and most-recently, Borat.
Time Magazine did a reasonably-fine job asking "Who Can Say What?" The article is online and worth your time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1609490,00.html
It was also a rough week for those of us who read and loved the work of Kurt Vonnegut. His Slaughterhouse Five is among the 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-2001, as reported by ALA. I read the book in high school because it was on so many best lists and because it had a reputation for being edgy. When I read it, I did not get the edge so much as that overwhelming feeling of despair, shared by so many readers before me and since.
Onward to post your Week 4 lectures.
AB
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