[Peace-discuss] Ads not protected speech

[Kranich, Kimberlie]

Advertisements are not forms of protected speech. Newspapers and TV stations
can and do refuse advertising for a variety of reasons.  This is not an
issue of free speech. 

Kimberlie

-----Original Message-----
From: patton paul [mailto:ppatton at staff.uiuc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 9:29 PM
To: Matt Reichel
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Plan of Action (fwd)


On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, Matt Reichel wrote:

>
> 	If I was in town to attend the AWARE meeting starting about now, I
> would push for helping in the following agenda. My feeling is that NOW is
> the time to actually act on the "anti-racism" part of the name.
> 	Hate speech is NOT protected by the first amendment; It reduces
> rather than furthers liberty.
>
>
> 	cheers,
> 	matt
>

Matt-
The American Civil Liberties Union wouldn't agree with you.  They
have defended the first amendment free speech rights of neo-Nazis and the
Klu Klux Klan on numerous occasions.  The ACLU doesn't do this because
they like the Nazis or the Klan, but because they want to protect our right
to
express non-mainstream political views of all sorts.  This freedom is
especially important for those of us on the Left.  The DI staff seems to
have been motivated by ideals similar to those of the ACLU when they
decided to run the ad, and that's the reason why I don't think we should
protest their decision.  The One Truth ad reduces the complexity and moral
ambiguity of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict to a simple-minded caracature
in which the Israelis are good and the Palestinians are the embodiment of
evil.  This dehumanization of another group of people is exactly what makes
it possible to justify oppressing and killing them.  It is precisely the
sort of thinking that we must vigorously oppose if we want to promote
peace.  However, we should do so by using the DI and other forums to
present opposing views--we should not demand political censorship.
-Paul Patton

__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
__________________________________________________________________




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