2004 Jefferson Muzzle Awards

un1xl0ser writes "The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has released the muzzle awards for people who forgot that "free speech can not be limited without being lost". Check out the 2004 "winners". Famous winners include The U.S. Department of Defense and CBS."

Comments

I don't agree with some of the complaints...

[gfxguy]

• Baseball Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey As head of a private organization, he made a decision and stood by it. I personally don't agree with his decision, but he did NOT stifle Tim Robbins right to free speech... Tim made his message loud and clear in many different and varried venues. His right to free speech doesn't include a right to make people give him a podium from which to give it.
  
  
• CBS Television Again, agree or disagree with their policy, they are a private organization that should not be forced to carry a message they did not want to convey. MoveOn.org got their message out, the commercial was aired on other channels as well as downloadable from the website. The Reagan miniseries was shown (albeit on cable) and is probably available to rent. There is no censorship, not violating free speech rights.
  
  
• The South Carolina House of Representatives Again, they may have been wrong, but they didn't inhibit anyone's right to free speech.
  

The other ones are pretty bad and well deserving of the "award", especially the last few, IMO.

Dixie Chicks

[dman123]

I have to agree about celebs thinking they are more important than others. But I'm sure you aren't criticizing the Dixie Chicks for speaking at all. I'm sure you Read The F***ing ;-) Article about the Dixie Chicks/South Carolina. I'll repost the important part.

Just one week after Maines' statement, South Carolina State Representative Catherine Ceips introduced a House Resolution calling upon the Dixie Chicks to publicly apologize for the statement and perform a free concert for American troops stationed in South Carolina when the group began a tour in Greenville, South Carolina on May 1st. The Resolution called the comments "unpatriotic," "unnecessary," and "anti-American." The measure passed the House on a 50-35 vote.

They deserved all the criticism and praise they got for the speech against Bush. They did not deserve a law enacted to specifically force them to apologize and give a free concert. I'll cut them some slack for feeling persecuted when this type of crap happens.

Sadly there is truth to this

[Sanity]

Since you have raised the issue, and thus few can argue that it is offtopic, perhaps this is a good time to remind people that /. editor Michael Sims has been squatting on censorware.org, a domain previously used by successful anti-censorship group Censorware, who were forced to move to censorware.net. You can find the full story here, but basically he was their webmaster but took the site down after a nasty argument with one of the other participants. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of that argument, it hardly justifies denying the public such a valuable anti-censorship resource.

Of course, what is particularly interesting is that /. editors (possibly including Sims himself) routinely use their unlimited moderation points to moderate any discussion of this as offtopic.

It will be interesting to see whether they will do this on this thread since it is pretty relevant to its parent which was moderated quite highly. Hell, I am even happy to risk getting bitchslapped to find out.