Censorship in 2007: The New McCarthyism

This is part one of a series looking at political censorship today in 2007. I'll be examining a variety of countries in which censorship comes from both left and right political forces. Part one looks at the United States.

Society in the United States is collapsing. No, it's not because of Bush but rather small groups with too much power leading a witch hunt against America's most sacred institution: free speech.
First we had the Black Nazis led by Al Sharpton get Don Imus fired for a single comment. Latest on the chopping block is popular comedy show hosts Opie and Anthony. I have XM and listen to that show. I haven't been in my car much this week since I've been on vacation, but when I do go out, I found myself asking why the other comedy show Ron & Fez was running all day. Now I know. Though I don't know the exact circumstances of their firing, it's very disturbing and has me now considering canceling my satellite radio subscription.

This my friends is the new McCarthyism. We'll call it the Blue Scare since it seems like conservatives in the media are being targeted, though many liberals have found themselves targets as well. Indeed, this is something that the two sides of the political spectrum need to get together on.
We live in a feel good age. These days, it's a crime to make anybody feel bad, provided they aren't white males. Boy, if I could successfully sue every person that has offended me, I certainly wouldn't be living in Milton. This trend though is very disturbing. It seems like it takes only one person among legions of listeners or viewers to be offended by the content of the program to get it pulled off the air. I'm no expert when it comes to American politics but I'm pretty sure that's a violation of the First Amendment. Right now, powerful groups on both the left and the right are leading a witch hunt to get offensive things off the air. How does one define something as being offensive though? The thing is, you can't. Of course we don't want programs targeted at young children that talk about graphic sex and what not. However, the programs being targeted by these special interest groups are shows specifically for adults. If you are so offended by a program, why the hell are you even watching it in the first place! Turn it off. That's the problem. Nobody is forcing these people to view or hear offensive content, yet, these interests groups are forcing people not to view it. Isn't that fascism? With increasing FCC fines for obscene content, it seems the US government is on their side.
Why do networks pull these shows though, even when the FCC doesn't threaten them with fines? Well, that's a very good question. It's primarily due to manipulation of advertisers, implicitly and explicitly. Special interest groups threaten product boycotts of the advertisers unless they pull their support from the show. That's how shows with huge ratings that bring in stations huge amounts of money can get pulled. It makes little business sense but it just shows the power that these small groups have. Mind you, these advertisers have nothing to fear as those loyal to the shows (who are in the majority) would probably buy more of a product if the advertisers continued support in the face of a minority boycott. That was the case with Sinefeld DVDs after the Michael Richards incident and the subsequent call by African American fascists for a boycott of his works.

Now what about Canada. Well, that is what this blog is about. I like to ask, can this happen here? Canada is significantly more tolerant of content than the US is. The CRTC and Industry Canada regulate how the communications industry does business but they don't really care about content. Not as much as the FCC does anyway. For example, one of the few countries that allows all South Park episodes to be shown is Canada. Don't say it cannot happen here though. It can. A few years ago, the CRTC pulled the license of a Quebec radio station due to the "offensive" comments of two popular shock jocks. The CRTC received 10 complaints on a show that had tens of thousands of listeners. To them, that was cause to shut it down. There's also some Broadcast Standards thing, that is separate from the government. It's a board made by the industry to self-police. In other words, it's yet another group for the special interest people to manipulate to promote their fascist agendas.

Censorship is running rampant in North American society and it must be halted. People blast the McCarthy era for censorship yet they blissfully ignore it happening today. Do somethign so stop it. Here's US based website dealing with it. It's down for maintenance as a write this now but it might be a good idea to check it out later.
http://www.peopleagainstcensorship.com/

Here's a video from CNN about the issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuzdaFajByg