College speech codes are the American Left’s special shame, and it the time for them to go the way of parietal hours and mandatory chapel attendance is overdue. There are monstrosities of thought control in schools across the nation, but those in state universities are especially offensive and ominous, since they are in slam-dunk defiance of the First Amendment prohibiting government restrictions on speech. As Barton Hinkle notes in an eye-opening piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, not only are state schools stomping on free speech, state schools dedicated to the legacy on the men who wrote the First Amendment are doing it. If there is anything more unethical than educators stifling thought and the expression of it, that would be it. Continue reading
Juan Williams
Juan Williams, Revelations and the Phony NPR Ethics Code
We have learned a lot from the Juan Williams firing. For example,
- We learned that Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd only find it offensive when white pundits draw a connection between Muslims and terrorism, while fervently believing that African-American pundits should be able to express similar opinions without fear of reprisal. (I would point out to The View’s women that walking out on a guest on television is exactly as intolerant as firing an employee for a similar opinion.)
- We learned that at NPR, opinions that run counter to the officially sanctioned culturally-diverse cant are not merely regarded as mistaken, but crazy. NPR’s CEO stated that Williams should have kept his opinions about Muslims “between himself and his psychiatrist.” This is how the Soviet Union used to treat anyone whose opinion varied from state Marxism, too, and the dissidents were sent to mental institutions. Does it bother anyone else that the head of a state-funded radio network treats dissent so disrespectfully? Yes, Vivian Schiller later apologized for her “thoughtless”—as in, “I don’t want people to know I think this way”—remark. It was telling nonetheless. Continue reading
Juan Williams, Martyr to Tolerance
Appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s “The Factor,” reliable Fox house liberal Juan Williams told the bloviating host:
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Whereupon he was summarily fired from his long-time position as senior correspondent with National Public Radio.
Why? Continue reading
Ethics Alarms 