If you don't want to listen to it, don't turn it on. We all seek out what we want to put into our brains, and if an Imus gets booted, there will be 5 more to take his place. Whether or not we like the words, it is constitutionally protected free speech.

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Someone said something you didn't like. It hurt your feelings. So now you want to trample over thier first admendment right to spew thier garbage just to make yourself feel better.

You know what, go right ahead. Ban them from saying what they want on tv and radio. All you'll do is hasten the inevitable and push them all into the internet, which you can't control. More people spend more time on the internet then they do listening to talk radio. You'll just be giving them a larger audience.

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Nobody,and I do absolutely mean NOBODY, has my permission to protect me from anything that may offend me. I am a big boy and I can decide for myself how to deal with ignoramus' and asshats
without any hand-holding or prior restraint.
I do not need to be protected from violence
or sex or language or ideas.I do not trust those who believe I need protection and scorn those who beg for it. Maybe I just got raised wrong.

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...recent Cartoon Jihad.

Devaluing liberty is not worth what it would cost us to enforce rhetoric solely for the purpose of validating our own personal ideologies.

Sure, you can go right ahead and hate such speech. You can even turn it off.

The notion of having the government itself intervene in political discourse is a profanity against our Constitution. I hate such speech, but I recognize the right of others to advocate trashing our Constitutional rights, without labeling it hate speech and begging for the men in black to help me stop listening.

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I am of two minds about the shock jocks. I hate what they say, but agree that they have the right to say it.

What does puzzle me, however, is why the shock jocks are terrified that anyone else should get equal time.

Without getting into a debate about the merits of the Fairness Doctrine, I am not sure why the shock jocks are so upset that someone else MIGHT have a platform. Kind of makes me think that they would love to outlaw any speech contradicting their positions.

Sounds to me like they actually have an issue with a level playing field or any kind of fairness.

Maybe someone who admires these bloviators could explain that to me.

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He got lots of fines for midget farting contests and [redacted], but stayed on radio - right up until he started dissing Bush.

Then he got fired.

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This book release seems to have hit the nerve of the Right Wing trolls.

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I am a firm believer in Karma and let me tell you, these people who continually spew hate, are in for a miserable existence. They will get their's.

Just think about how sick they must be to live with so much hate. Hate does terrible things to the physical body over time.

It almost makes me feel sorry for them, but...they will be reaping what they sow soon enough.

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Contrary to what is stated in this article the book is available from Amazon for $10.17 and for $14.95 from AlterNet. Come on folks let's get the basic facts straight.
Distortion of facts anyone?

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Just like you have [news] anchor bigots, the shock jocks and military ones are all part of the bigger, plan. They wouldn't be so abundant, if AmeriKKKa didn't use them to maintain psychological. The powers that be (media, govt.) use fearism to keep people under control. What were the tactics used to steal this land from the Indians, and enslave, the Afrikans? Anti-Kemitic and BlAndroPhobic hosts/esses are part of the AmeriKKKan fabric.
Why do you think they're All white? Non-Black.

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Hate crimes, have been legal in the U.S. since 1964 and L.B.J.s war against poverty!!! The war against drugs, would not be possible, without the hate mongering of the churches, and the media!!! When Howard Stern ran for governor of N.Y. he dropped right out of the race, because he refused to divulge was funding his campaign!!! Free speech is not the problem here, it is who is funding this hatred??? And why no one is looking for them??? If you know anything at all about the act of war, then you've heard the saying "divide and conquer"!!! We have become the divided states of America, because of church, and media propaganda and hatred, the terrorist themselves are funding this unraveling of these once united states!!! The war against drugs, would not be possible without the divisionary voices of the anti-drug movement i.e. D.A.R.E. and THE PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG FREE AMERICA!!! THESE TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, are funded by al-CIA-da, the same people that brought you 911, the O.K.C. BOMBING AND WACO!!! Hate, and propaganda themselves need to be outlawed, as well as the progenitors of hate!!! AND EQUAL TIME GUARANTEED, for everyone mentioned, or accused of anything, by anyone, with the same means, and force!!! Free speech is a two sided street, or a dead end??? It's our choice!!!

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For real, intelligent, uncensored radio, we still have the internet. The radio waves are completely censored, sterilized, and dumbed down into Newspeak for all the proles.

Imus (for example) doesn't need networks or sponsors, only his loyal fan base. He should tell the networks to shove it and get out from under their boot.

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Unfortunately, articles like this stray from the real issue and give all the trolls a forum to cry about liberals being against free speech. Of course most people progressive or not will (and should) be wary of curtailing their right to say whatever the hell they want.

But free speech is NOT the issue. It's media consolidation and a corporate controlled FCC that creates an unnatural overabundance of right-wing shock jocks, etc. (NOT the "free-market" -- trolls, please spare me your transparent argument -- it's already been shown that many radio markets with a progressive population would make more money with liberal talk shows - the Clear Channels just choose a right-wing kook for their own self-interest)

This control of the media by corporate interests is the real threat to free speech. By giving control of the airwaves to a few, they drown out the voices of the many.

I don't know why, but people seem to forget that radio and television DO NOT EXIST without government controls. The airwaves are part of the commons, a public resource that is finite. If not for the power of government I could stick an antenna on my roof and start broadcasting and interfere with the local Clear Channel station. Of course I'd be forced to stop or be arrested.

The point is, without government regulation and enforcement the networks could not exist and make those wads of cash. But it's the citizens who are supposed to decide the best way to exploit this valuable American resource.

Did you know that up until about 20 years ago stations had to have their license renewed every two years? They'd have to meet certain criteria to show they were operating in the public interest. Usually broadcasting news was the way to show this "public service" and the news operated at a great financial loss. Therefore, even if shallow infotainment news and cheap punditry were the best way to make money on the news (a point I don't concede incidentally), making money should not be its purpose.

Thanks to corporate control, now they just send in a postcard to renew every 8 years, and it is always rubber-stamped. This is what free speech advocates should be outraged about!

Sadly, the Bush FCC continues to push for more and more consolidation against the will of the real owners (the people). Even when the activists fight tooth and nail to stop it, it's somewhat of a hollow victory. To even come close to what it should be we need to reverse and break up the consolidation that already exists.

Arguing about whether some repug scum should have the right to speak - it's all smoke and mirrors. They love having this conversation. It keeps people from discussing the root problem!

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The audience may widen on the internet, but it cannot get much more ignorant. And you would have to be deliberate to go to it, rather than accidentally run across it looking for something worthwhile on the radio. (Give it up; it's not there anymore).

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I totally disagree this view on talk radio. Those so called "Shock Jocks" have the largest audience in radio today. The Democrats are trying to introduce a bill to eliminate that kind of talk radio. I listen to Rush, Hannity, Savage, Ingram, Oriely and Glenn Beck just about every day. What I have learned about that Jew hating racist Obama is appalling!! I also read the New York Times and watch NBC, CBS and ABC news, they have a policy of NOT reporting accurately the most important
stories such as the fact that the surge is working & we are winning in Iraq! The stories about Obama's lack of experience and his associations with terrorists like William Ayres and Palistine anti Jewish organizations,and convicted felons such a Risco (Obama got him $75,000 of taxpayers money!) America has to wake up and hear all the facts.
If people do not want to hear the truth they don't have to listen to talk radio.
God Bless America.

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The author is correct. If you want to listen to sick sociopathic hate talk radio (about all we have now) then you have the right to go buy it on satelite like porn on the internet. (probably most of the same birds of a feather knuckle draggers!) But don't put it on MY paid for airways to destroy my middle class and my country. We obviously must have government regulation to preserve civilized society from the corporate media predators and need to reintroduce meaningful balance requirements especially since Public Broadcasting no longer lives up to its charter mandates. Do what you want in the privacy of your own home and choice of entertainment but stay out of my media unless you have something we can all find profitable and uplifting.

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are the same thing. It is against the law to incite a riot, yell fire (when none exists) in a crowded theater or fail to stop and render aid at the scene of an accident.
It was and is against the law to speak libel, slander and defamation. How these people are not sued daily is beyond me.

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I am a little surprised by how the comments touting the right to free speech received such low ratings. It's easy to call for a racist "asshat" to be silenced. What happens when it's a radical asshat? An activist asshat? A dissenting asshat? A protesting asshat? A Democrat asshat?
Once you curb someones free speech it gets easier and easier to curb other speech you disagree with until the day comes when YOU are the one being silenced.

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