As we continue to cope with our great national loss, we now find ourselves looking forward, working on ways to prevent further attacks. Aside from the ongoing debate about military action, we also are examining ways that we will change our own domestic behaviors.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has proposed a long list of changes to wiretapping laws, police examination rights and immigration reform that should pose a major hindrance on the civil liberties of terrorists and those involved in organized crime. He has not, however, proposed limiting the free speech of individuals, nor has he proposed any solution that would deter discourse between Americans about how our nation should proceed.
It seems that those curbs have been left to corporate America and White House spokesmen.
Bill Maher, host of ABC's Politically Incorrect, had this to say on his first program after the attack: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building--say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
Two days after the show when the statement aired, Sears and FedEx, key sponsors of Maher's program, pulled all their advertising. Sears justified its actions in a brief corporate press release: "Sears took this action after reviewing a transcript of the Sept. 17 conversation among Maher and his guests in which the U.S. military was described as cowardly."
FedEx--say what you want about them--did not issue a statement as blatantly misleading as Sears'.
Most Americans probably do not agree with Maher's statement--it's bold, provocative, politically incorrect and contrary to the rah-rah Americanism that has echoed since the attack. It's a statement that is designed to make one think, and it is a sharp rebuke of American foreign policy over the past few years--where our global presence has been self-limited to a squadron of jets and a few aircraft carriers usually destroying armies and enemies, but occasionally knocking out a Chinese embassy and the very people we were trying to protect. (By the way, if you think that the Chinese embassy in Serbia was the only missed target of the 1999 Kosovo air campaign, you need to look back no further than the Sept. 11 attacks to realize that intelligence has become nothing more than an oxymoron.)
A simple reading of Maher's statement shows that his comment is not an attack on the men and women who make up our noble armed services. It's an attack on the politicians who, suffering from delusions of Vietnam, have decided that America's military might will be reduced to a policy of shoot first, ask questions later. Look at Kosovo. Look at the pharmaceutical factory we destroyed in 1998 after Osama bin Laden exploded a pair of American embassies. Our past responses were tepid. We should have taken out bin Laden and anyone who protected him three years ago.
But rather than let this debate flourish, Sears and FedEx decided to throw in the free-speech towel. Why sponsor free speech when you can cower at the behest of right-wing radio?
Allow me to explain. The most peculiar thing about the protests of Maher's show was that they took 48 hours to foment. It also should be noted that no one in Maher's audience booed or hissed when he made his astute, non-politically correct observation. This entire protest is a scheme being manufactured by a right-wing radio maven from Texas. Dan Patrick (not ESPN's Dan Patrick) is one of your run-of-the-mill, shoot-your-mouth-off conservatives who cherishes his own right to free speech. On his Houston-based show on KSEV radio, Patrick called on listeners to complain to FedEx, Sears, Disney (the parent company of ABC) and the local ABC station. The local station put it in perspective--in their statement, the affiliate noted that they receive three times as many calls when a soap opera is pre-empted.
Houston, we have a problem--the right wing of a conservative town is making decisions for all of America. We may as well let four-year-old children vote in national elections. While Disney insists that it has no plans to pull the show, the Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate has indefinitely discontinued broadcasts of Maher' show. So have 16 other stations.
Yes, Sears and FedEx have a right to spend money freely. And, no, they do not have to sponsor a show they fundamentally disagree with. However, this current protest is a misinformed railroading by a few irate conservatives. Their misinformation even got to the usually cool-under-fire White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, who commented Sept. 27, "There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is." Who says that the Taliban is only overseas? Under the Ari Fleischer version of democracy, we have the freedom to obey right here in America. Office of Homeland Censorship, anyone?
I've never urged a campaign before in a column, but the campaign for free speech is as good as any. Call your local ABC station, call Walt Disney Co., call Sears, call FedEx.
Get real loud and tell them that you will not see America silenced. Or if they have no sense of irony, just boycott their products.
Martin Barna, Trinity '02, is projects editor of The Chronicle and film editor of Recess.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.