rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob]) (12/18/85)
Mark,
Why don't you send a copy of your note to Don Black about
"Political Viewpoint is not grounds for being censored on
the net." Although I oppose his views almost diametrically
I think the method of his disposal was exactly that.
Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (12/27/85)
I started reading net.politics too late to have read anything by
Mr. Don Black -- probably a good thing for my blood pressure.
I don't like censorship, even of views I abhor. Communists,
Fascists, Racists, Sexists, Feminists, etc. -- keep on talking!
Put your views on the air, and let your opponents cut them up.
Still, censoring Mr. Black, if that is what happened, is a good idea.
The Rev. Carl McIntyre used to own a radio station, WXUR, in Media,
Pennsylvania. I could listen to it whenever I drove on the southern
portion of the New Jersey Turnpike. Rev. McIntyre was a decent
gentleman, although I could hardly agree with much of what his
station broadcast (for example, a program by a self-admitted Communist
attacking Philadelphia businessmen, or the "Christian-Jew Hour" aimed
at converting Jews). His downfall came after the 1967 Middle East war.
WXUR carried a right-wing nut named Richard Cotten, a real Jew-hater.
Usually, the fundamentalists (I don't use the word as a pejorative)
were on Israel's side for Biblical reasons, and the right-wingers were
on Israel's side because the Soviets were backing the Arabs.
But Mr. Cotten's hatred for the Jews overcame all other considerations.
He broadcast fabricated stories about atrocities supposedly committed
by Israeli troops during the conquest of Judea and Samaria. And his
program got NOTICED!
The Philadelphia Council of Churches got after, not Mr. Cotten (who
operated out of California), but Rev. McIntyre. After several years
of protracted proceedings (which were documented at the time in
BROADCASTING Magazine), Rev. McIntyre's "Leadership Radio for the
Delaware Valley" LOST ITS BROADCAST LICENSE. Is this right? Doesn't
the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantee free speech, even
for unpopular causes? And isn't the Constitution the "Supreme Law of
the Land"?
I think the Rev. McIntyre would be the first to agree that there is
a "higher Law" than the Constitution. And in that Law, it is written,
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee
will I curse" (Genesis 12:3). A society that tolerates anti-Semitism
is cursed, and will meet the fate of the Babylonians, the Seleucid
Greeks, the Romans, the medieval Spaniards, and the 19th-20th century
Germans. If the FCC acts against WXUR, or against a similar station
in Puyallup, Washington (I forget the call letters), or against the
racist anti-Semites in Kansas City, it's to protect the United States
from the consequences of tolerating anti-Semitism. Management at DEC
acted in the company's best interests if it in fact put a lid on Mr.
Don Black's open Jew-hatred.
That doesn't mean that anti-Semitism is necessarily more abhorrent to
me than some of the other "isms" I don't like. It just means that there
is Someone who has said that He abhors it, and has the power to destroy
those who practice it and outfits that tolerate it.
-- Matt Rosenblatt