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FCC Considers Fining Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Trump Joke (rollingstone.com)
FCC chairman Ajit Pai said on Friday his agency will be looking into complaints made against Late Show host Stephen Colbert for what some labeled a homophobic joke about President Donald Trump. From a report: On Monday's Late Show, Colbert quipped that "the only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c**k holster." The joke drew accusations of homophobia, a viral #FireColbert campaign and FCC complaints against Colbert. In an interview Friday, FCC chairman Ajit Pai told a Philadelphia radio station, "I have had a chance to see the clip now and so, as we get complaints -- and we've gotten a number of them -- we are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it's been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we'll take the appropriate action." Pai added, "Traditionally, the agency has to decide, if it does find a violation, what the appropriate remedy should be. A fine, of some sort, is typically what we do."
The Libs are eating their own now
Not over the joke, over the words he used in it.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's a funny joke
The only thing Donald Trump's mouth is good for is a cock holster for Vladimir Putin.
It's true.
It's poetic.
Go fuck yourself, fascists.
When have Trump supporters **EVER** cared about homophobia???????
Smells like freedom to me.
A cock is just another word for a rooster.
And cock is just another word for penis.
When you say one man is using another as a cock holster, and you know neither personally owns livestock, then the meaning is pretty clear.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
wow...get triggered much?
it's a fucking joke using the word 'cock.' it's not like he accidentally displayed his nipple.
So it is more than slightly ironic that he makes such jokes.
This is McCarthyism!
--Donald Trump via Twitter.
When this story broke out, I searched for the clip to see what the fuss was about. When I did find it I realised that I had seen it before, and while I did think at the time that it was an unusual type of joke for one of those monologues, I didn't see how it could be labelled homophobic. The joke doesn't say that homosexuality is bad, nor did it say anything about anyone who is gay. It merely suggested a closer relationship than has been admitted and a power dynamic that Trump is Putin's bitch. It's strong stuff, but nothing different that calling Hillary Clinton a witch ("jail the witch").
The funny thing is, a lot of the people who are complaining about this would also say that gay marriage should not be allowed. I think that if gays and lesbians had a choice they would rather be able to live their lives as they want to and put up with the odd joke or two than not be allowed to marry the person they love and be told that they are going to hell.
The 20yo have always been the engine that drive the world, the 40yo have always been there to slow them down.
LOL you think it's millennial democrats filling these reports?!
Head over to 4chan/pol. They are organising a mass complaint campaign and trying to get him fired. 4chan's pol is far right, by the way. Deeply anti-Semitic and racist, but Trump is their guy.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
.. and the goal posts move back that much farther.
Fine him into the ground, but don't get him fired. The PUSA bragged about sexual assault (grabbin' PUSSY) and got elected. Colbert joked about something and gets fired? Give me a break. I agree his remarks might have been homo-offensive or even homophobic, but that's protected under free speech laws. Hate speech attacks individuals or orientations; homophobic speech is merely offensive. I'm a staunch advocate of free speech and I defend both Trump's "locker room talk" and Colbert's "homophobic remarks" because they are not meant to provoke, but rather to entertain. I find both incidents morally objectionable, but not to the point of obscenity or hate against a class. tl;dr this shit doesn't matter: fix hunger, refugee crises, nuclear threats, global warming before you shit your pants over sex jokes while the whole system fails.
Not over the joke, over the words he used in it.
That's a good description of the issue.
We don't really care that much when people insult the president, and we can think badly of such people or goodly of them. That part doesn't matter.
But Colbert's phrase was particularly rude, it's pretty-much covered in Carlin's seven dirty words, and it wasn't a sly, under-the-radar slip or emotional outburst as part of a dramatic scene, for example. It was explicit profanity.
People aren't going after him for the rest of his monologue, which was also very insulting, and they don't complain about John Oliver or Bill Maher when they face the camera and rattle off insults with no wit or insight.
It's the explicit profanity, and Colbert knows better.
every activist group in the country would be calling for their job—and they’d get it.
Josh Jordan remarked
Aaaaand you fail basic reading comprehension.
He said he had no sympathy, BECAUSE the snowflakes have been filing FCC complaints about all sorts of conservative stuff for years, on grounds much weaker than this.
The difference is that the FCC is a government agency.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If he doesn't pay the fine, he could be subject to arrest. A fine is not really morally different than arrest.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It was intended to protect political speech from consequence from the government, the FCC is... the government.
SCOTUS got it wrong, imo. Try to apply this standard to any other form of political speech not over the airwaves and note how quickly it would be tossed.
It's not always homophobic to mockingly refer to someone as a homo, or even a submissive bottom homo. Not every pejorative homosexual joke is homophobic or offensive. Sometime it's just boys being boys.
CowboyNeal enjoys ruggedized USB sticks up his bunghole. See, it's all good.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
In what universe is this story news for nerds?
If he doesn't pay the fine, he could be subject to arrest. A fine is not really morally different than arrest.
Yessir, indeed, but on the order of a traffic ticket a poor person (maybe) cannot pay due to the cost of baby formula, oxycontin, or rent.
These fines can typically be sat out in exchange for some form of per diem allowance by the gracious County. Unfortunate and even inconvenient, but not on the order of an impromptu removal after dark from one's bed, with no idea who to call to make bail.
There's a good bet the fine for Colbert probably won't eeven cover the publicity value of his unfortunate choice of words...
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Colbert "Trump's only use is as Putin's cock holster"
Trump: "Romney would have dropped to his knees for my endorsement in 2012"
This is political, Colbert has been nailing Trump on issue after issue.
This was a fucking hilarious attack monologue, on Trump's 100 day interview, where he insulted the man interviewing him, then refused to repeat his "Obama wiretapped me" claim, then sat down behind the deskl and did a sulk.
Trump was a dick, and Colbert used rephrased versions of TRUMP's insults into a sharper attack. TRUMP. Watch it if you haven't already, it's comedy at its finest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaHwlSTqA7s
Ajit should not be attacking free political speech, he is already in trouble killing Net Neutrality. He needs to apologise.
It is guaranteed that those consequences won't include sanction from the government.
That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while.
What they're pointing out is the gigantic dose of hypocrisy on the liberal side. If someone they hate (say, a host on Fox, whatever) made the same remark, liberals would absolutely HOWL with outrage and fits of phony SJW hand-wringing and fainting couch use.
If the same monologue had been delivered by someone on the right who had no history of making homophobic comments. exactly as colbert has no such history, it would never have gone to the FCC. Some people would have bitched, but it would have been forgotten in 24 hours, as happens 95% of the time with people on the right who do have a history of homophobia make homophobic remarks. After all, O'Really loved himself a good anti-gay tirade and what did people on the left do? Roll their eyes and get on with their lives.
The only time the FCC ever gets involved is when some conservative snowflakes pop their tops at some imagined affront.
This, exactly.
So Drumpf can say that on the radio but Colbert can't say cockholser on TV.
Gotcha.
Did any actually get fined or pulled?
If not, then this should also not. If so then this should also.
rules shouldn't be based on political alignment
Someone on TV says something they don't like...a sympathetic puppet of the administration brings the hammer down full force in a hypocritical display of "it's ok for us to have said this shit for years about the other guy but don't you dare say anything about us."
For starters, about the only way the FCC could really do anything about this is classifying it as obscene content; which you would further argue would have zero artistic merit. That's largely because the power to regulate indecent content is a lot looser at the time this would have aired. There's a good reason shows like South Park, or Tosh.O, or a lot of the former cable shows get syndicated at time slots that late. If they do classify it as obscene, then there will likely be further appeals on the basis of a first amendment argument. But they will have zero problem wasting all the time and resources in the world to "crush a dirty fucking liberal" than they will to take care of the sick, the elderly, the people that really need it.
Give me a fucking break.
And this Pai guy; he's very clearly a big telcomm/Verizon guy in a position to give them the most power. This man has single handly undone everything that gives consumer protections; and handed dildo of wallet rape back to the monopolies that make our lives a living hell. He has a lot more in common with the shit I flush down the toilet than color. Then again...as anyone who has Verizon will tell you; all they're going to do is stick an Indian in charge to just fuck things up.
This is going to be a witch hunt. This is going to be the start of government controlled media. This is going to be the start of the end of the personal freedoms and liberty the Republicans screamed they were about.
I hope your fucking guns were worth raping the very thing you claim.
SCOTUS needs to strike down the profanity exemption to free speech. It was always bullshit. This should've been settled with Lenny Bruce.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I give it 2 months until Antifa get cut down by snipers.
It's worth looking at what's happening while we're distracted with this. Because what's happening is just not funny:
Russian violated the mid range missile treaty. Trump said nothing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/world/europe/russia-cruise-missile-arms-control-treaty.html?_r=0
Russian flaunted the artic military base treaty, Trump said nothing.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-flaunts-arctic-expansion-military-bases/story?id=47091750
When Trump bombed the Syrian airbase, he informed Putin ahead of time, Putin told Assad. Assad removed all his fighters and bombers from the base. US blew up a bit of tarmac as a result. If Trump did that with ground troops, Assad would have ambushed them.
Not funny I know, but that is why we need Colbert.
This whole tempest in a teapot is an attempt to punish criticism of the government in general, and criticism of Trump specifically. Colbert did nothing to apologize for.
Trump sucks Putin's cock. Come at me, FCC!
(captcha: quoted)
I've never liked Steveo Coldberg. He's an idiot.
In most cases, but you still can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater without government-sponsored repercussions.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
This one is true.
In most cases, but you still can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater without government-sponsored repercussions.
That is completely and 100% untrue. It is fully legal to yell fire in a theater, and you will not be capable of finding one single court case claiming such a thing is a crime.
You WILL discover numerous cases where there were charges of "inciting a riot" or "inciting public panic causing harm and injury", but literally not one single charge relating to publicly speaking.
Seeing that Colbert did not incite a riot or a panic, nor cause anyone to harm anyone else, the fact you imply he did with only evidence to the contrary looks very poorly of you and your judgement.
People complained to the FCC about Colbert's joke, so the FCC is supposed to review the case. This is the FCC's job, and they would be remiss if they didn't investigate. The FCC isn't investigating because they have a problem with Colbert criticizing Trump, but because it's their job to investigate complaints. The FCC regularly gets complaints about SNL, including a sketch last year in which Dave Chappelle used the n-word on the show. They investigate those complaints, just like they have to investigate the complaints against CBS and Colbert. It's their job. There are a number of factors that go into the FCC's decision, including the context of the objectionable content, whether it was live or not, and the time at which the program aired.
I don't think Colbert's comments merit a fine from the FCC, but that would be the typical penalty for objectionable content on broadcast TV. I don't believe Colbert's comments were homophobic, but they do refer to the act of oral sex, and content relating to sexual acts can still draw a fine from the FCC. There wasn't anything graphic about what Colbert said, and there's a long history of sex-related jokes on late night TV going back at least to the days of Johnny Carson. There were far more objectionable things that aired regularly when Conan hosted Late Night, including characters like the masturbating bear. Then there's all the things Sean Connery has claimed to have done with Alex Trebek's mother on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, which, by the way, is hilariously funny. I think it would be strange if the FCC issued a fine, especially given that this is late night TV where such content is pretty common.
That said, I didn't find Colbert's comments funny. There wasn't anything particularly clever and I just didn't find it amusing. Personally, I think Colbert is the least funny of any late night TV hosts in recent memory. I didn't really like Conan when he was on Late Night, because I felt too much of his humor was toilet humor. He did have some really good sketches, though, like the recurring In The Year 2000. To his credit, he's gotten a lot better since moving to the Tonight Show and now to TBS. Leno didn't quite measure up to Carson, but he was more in the style of Carson than other hosts. I really enjoyed Leno's Tonight Show, though Fallon is also really good. I didn't find Letterman particularly funny, though he was better than Colbert. James Corden has his moments on the Late Late Show, and Craig Ferguson was pretty good at times. That said, I prefer Seth Meyers, who I think is quite amusing and does a great job with interviewing his guests. I really liked Meyers when he did SNL's Weekend Update, and he's gotten a lot better at hosting Late Night.
No, I don't think Colbert's comments were homophobic or merit a fine. As late night TV goes, Colbert's comments weren't particularly pushing the envelope, though the FCC has to investigate these complaints. They should investigate and hopefully decide that no further action is warranted. I don't think Colbert should be fired over this, but I wouldn't mind seeing him replaced because he's just not that funny. My opinion has nothing to do with these comments, but rather my overall opinion of him as a late night TV host.
By the way, the lameness filter shouldn't be preventing me from using the n-word. Dave Chappelle has a long history of using it in his sketches, including the classic Black White Supremacist, and it's on-topic because he used it in the same time slot on SNL. I know, trolls use it on a regular basis, but it's actually on topic here in providing some context for other content that's been aired on late night TV and why I don't think Colbert's comments merit a fine from the FCC.
Putin said emphatically: "I did not have sexual relations with that man"
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Steven played a closeted gay man back in strangers with candy and constantly alluded to being gay in the old report show.
He hosted gay and trans people and advocated for their rights publicly and repeatedly. The joke was related to whose cock not the fact that it's a gay relationship... Republicans always attack the political correct left, well whose the bitching little PC police now???
This will totally backfire on republicans, the press from this will finally help him double his ratings and permanently become #1 over Fallon and for good reason. He is way funnier and smarter.
It's... homo-descriptive maybe?
I get the feeling they're grasping at straws due to pressure from above.
Same people who wanted FCC to "treat the internet like a public utility" are aghast that there's an FCC investigation into Stephen Colbert.
Somewhere on the internet, someone is crowing over their world class wit, not realising even for an instant that they have just made exactly the opposite point from the one they intended.
The best part is, no matter how many times they read this reply, they're still not going to see the problem. But they'll spend the rest of the day vaguely anxious that maybe they really are the idiot that everyone knows them to be.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
and I thought that was really funny.
It seems to me, the people that had a problem with this, is the PC movement, which is composed by and large by white and black females, who know nothing about the gay community but decided they need to act as our spokespeople.
BECAUSE the snowflakes have been filing FCC complaints about all sorts of conservative stuff for years, on grounds much weaker than this.
Except they haven't. God you guys are stupid.
Now *that* is the real joke. Trump, the victim of a homophobic joke.
Quite sly, this Pai guy.
...Except when it is on TV.... Then some word are less free than others.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
Trump: "Romney would have dropped to his knees for my endorsement in 2012"
Irony and Hypocrisy are both dead.
The media cleaned up Trump so people didn't realize how much worse he talked in public- they edited out the best they could while retaining a lot of the stupid and inflammatory statements... which mostly served to distract from the lack of any detail on positions (which he is flip flopping at record levels anyway.)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Is the holster joke the only bad thing about Colbert's monologue? How about the the overall contempt and personal attacks? Here are a few:
You’re not the POTUS; you’re the ‘BLOTUS.’
You’re the glutton with the button.
You’re a regular ‘Gorge Washington.’
You talk like a sign-language gorilla that got hit in the head.
In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c*ck holster.
The only thing smaller than your hands are your tax returns and you can take that any way you want.
And Colbert treated Stephen Miller even worse - he made "jokes" about Miller being killed. In a video clip that contains superimposed heads of Miller,
he [Miller] is electrocuted, bashed in the head with a baseball bat, and decapitated. One of the scenes Miller is added to is from the HBO series Game of Thrones, and mirrors a controversial scene where the show’s creators placed former President George W. Bush’s head on a spike.
Can you imagine anyone making "jokes" like that about any other president or his advisors? I didn't like Obama's actions in his second term, but if anyone had made "jokes" like that against Obama or his advisors personally, I would have told him they weren't funny.
If Colbert doesn't like Trump's policies and actions, fine. I don't like some of them either. Colbert should make jokes that criticize Trump's policies. Maybe joke about the Obamacare replacement bill. Attack his policies, not the man personally.
As the RollingStone article says, after the backlash against Colbert's homo joke, Colbert talked about love: "... life is short, and anyone who expresses their love for another person, in their own way, is to me, an American hero." That sounds good. Let's see more brotherly love or kindness in Colbert's monologues in the future.
die by the SJW
He offended homosexual people. They are a protected category. He committed a hate crime. I think we should kill him.
Consider:
(a) Colbert was attacking a person he hates. No mind reading is necessary; he has made this very clear over the past year.
(b) Colbert was making the nastiest attack he felt he could get away with. This too is quite clear both from the performance and from the follow-up the following night.
(c) When you slime somebody, you do it by labelling with something very highly obnoxious and objectionable; terms like motherf***er, "child molester", etc and NOT with positive things like "humanitarian". By definition, the labels you fling are ones YOU consider "bad".
Colbert (like Alec Baldwin) seems to instinctively go to tarring people he despises with homosexual-related labels. It appears to be a deep-seated bigotry in both of these jerks, and they both get away with it because they are "good" liberals. Ask yourself a question: if Trump were to repeatedly attach homosexual references to people he attacked, would you assume it was evidence he was biased against gays? If Trump repeatedly attached Jewish stereotypes to people he was attacking would you assume he was anti-semitic? If Trump was repeatedly attaching anti-black stereotypes to people when he attacked them would you assume he was a racist? WHY did Colbert go straight to the slang reference to a generally recognized as gay activity when he needed a way to label Trump as particularly repulsive?
THINK about it. Colbert may well pretend to be gay-friendly, possibly to aid in his career, but this seems to out his inner feelings every bit as much as Mel Gibson's anti-semitic rantings when he was arrested for drunk driving. Gibson had the excuse that his judgement was askew because he was drunk, yet Hollywood boycotted and blackballed Gibson for a decade.
You Tighty-Righties have been getting away with this shit for decades. But NOW you're offended?
Phuck you!
I can only use my own orientation to speculate on the thinkings of others. I would not use a joke like that because it creates a disgusting picture. I don't think it would be disgusting to a gay comedian, and thus, Colbert has revealed himself.
(||) Nehmo (||)
I'm living in Europe and I bet tomorrow morning in Church, people will be laughing not at the joke but at how America is still arguing left wing and right wing when most of the free world sees it as far right wing and further right wing.
Out of curiosity, what exactly is the definition of right and left in America anymore? Should we start calling it team red and team blue or team elephant and team donkey? This has so little to do with left and right or conservative and liberal that people simply make fools of themselves saying these things.
It's a competition of who can pretend to claim the high ground more than the other by declining into the deepest and darkest pits to do so. Good people don't choose sides. Good people treat everyone with kindness, dignity and respect... even the people they don't like. Good people don't say "it's ok to talk badly about this person because someone on the news does... or because he said something bad first".
I agree it was profane (but bleeped out which is a common way around that issue on TV) BUT it was on late night TV which is traditionally allowed much more latitude.
Also, there's nothing mentioning gay people in the quote as such nor is there anything in there (even if you took it in a gay context) to say anything about those people or their choices.
The entire point was to say that Trump is simply a tool in every respect of Putin, but in a profane way.
Only the most ridiculously sensitive could go digging for trouble here.
Frankly, the sensitivity likely being stirred up is the frustrated Alt-Right.
Don't get me wrong, it was a bit much for its crass vulgarity. But I don't see the homophobia.
The FCC is a government body and has no business handing out any fines, because fines are punishment and a citizen cannot legally be punished by the state for their speech.
They'll be putin' Colbert in the Gulags with Pussy Riot.
> Seven years imprisonment is not enough, give us eighteen!
>
> --Pussy Riot, "Putin zazhigayet kostry" (2012)
Where's a link? I want to see the whole joke.
Without knowing 4chan other than by reputation, someone who does wrote about their relation with Trump, https://medium.com/@DaleBeran/....
I'm sure the internet as a whole will condemn this rude remark and scrape every last reference to it from existence, especially if FCC rules against Colbert. "Trump is Putin's cock holster" will certainly not be repeated at every opportunity everywhere for a years to come.
The accusation got worse, it was upgraded from slander to betrayal of state secrets.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Huh? Obama bent over to take Putin's cock, too?
I really haven't been paying much attention to US politics those past 8 years...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And the same people who pretty much wanted to see the FCC disbanded because it stood in the way of eliminating a free internet now demand it to "do its job".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Good.
Holsters just hold it and no amount of gurgling, licking or sucking was intended in Colbert's joke. Trump leaves that for cleanup time.
The only crime here is that Colbert continues to take money for being a comedian. Can't he just be funny? Do liberals really just think insulting their opposition is funny instead of suggesting better policies?
So only free speech in praise of Dear Leader?
Do we really want to got that way?
This comment is nothing compared to a lot of the "alt-right" stuff, some of Trump's own words, or a lot of comedy in general. I think we should let Trump take him through the courts if necessary if he wants to sue instead of self-censorship.
Frankly, the comment we are talking about was just a quip, in poor taste of not.
The one I thought would get him in trouble was a recent mock interview, with Trump, which was, to some viewers, indiscernible from a real Trump interview.
You don't have to imagine, you can read them if you dig up some cartoons from when Clinton was President.
If Hillary was president and someone said this joke what would have happened to them
I get that this might be insulting to Trump (saying that a world leader is willing to submit sexually to Putin is pretty insulting), but how's it homophobic?
Also, this whole stupid hypocrisy about swearing on TV in the United States is ridiculous. How many kids have been harmed by hearing the word "fuck"? Zero.
Stephen Colbert Hits Best Ratings Since 2015 Premiere
It would seem the people enjoy this kind of thing.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
He said he had no sympathy, BECAUSE the snowflakes have been filing FCC complaints about all sorts of conservative stuff for years, on grounds much weaker than this.
[citation needed]
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The summary and title are patently false. The FCC is not considering fining Colbert.
The FCC received some consumer complaints about Colbert's use of obscene language on the air and is following up on those complaints as required by Law. This is very, very far from "considering a fine."
The backlash is from the left (hint: it's on Twitter). The right could care less about Colbert, it's not his audience. The problem is that everything is scrutinized and has to be politically correct even in comedy. I am a typical left-leaning person with very liberal sexual proclivities but the PC crowd, SJW and Feminists of the era do not represent my or most LGBTQ values, they are bordering on Nazism in regards their ideology and are a leader away from repealing the constitution in their quest.
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By letting a fucking non-white Indian run shit.
It just proves the GOP isn't as racist as you seem; they're more interested in puppets regardless of color.
If the FCC takes any action against Stephen Colbert for speaking out against Trump, then that's a clear violation of his 1st Amendment right to Freedom of Speech, plain and simple.
Is THIS the country we're living in now? Where you can't criticize POTUS without being OFFICIALLY censured? If so then we're one step closer to living in a dictatorship. Is this the United States of America, or is it somewhere like Syria, or Turkey, or Malaysia?
FCC Considers Fining Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Trump Joke
cock holsters. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
This is, in fact, bullshit, as it was all over Drudge Report earlier this week and the right-wing snowflakes were making a shitstorm on the message boards of the news articles and twitter.
Don't fire him, he spoke the truth., If you silence him by firing him, all you do is show that some people are to powerful, to stupid, to bigoted to be ridiculed.
I don't see this as anything to do with homosexuality, just a euphemism for "brown nosing" which itself is not a reference to coprophilia, but a euphemism for "sucking up to someone", again nothing to do with actual sucking... Oh you get the point.
Twinstiq, game news
You conveniently forgot to mention that this particular monologue wasn't actually about Trump's policies but rather about him calling the journalist interviewing him 'fake media' and referring to his show as 'deface the nation'.
It was Colbert reciprocating the name-calling Trump is famous for, and while you might find it distasteful Colbert would stoop to that level, one is a television comedian while the other is supposed to be the president.
The FCC should never have been given any power to punish anybody for what they say.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Yep. As usual, Libertarians are the only ones with consistent and reasonable viewpoints.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Colbert should have reviewed George Carlin's "7 Words You Can Never Say on Television" routine.
tits and ass, fuck yeah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
For those of you that don't get it, this is what authoritarianism actually looks like.
Colbert's comment was absolutely NOT homophobic, unless you consider associating Trump with gays to be insulting to gays (which, I would grant...).
What this is ACTUALLY about is the Trump administration not being happy that a prominent celebrity made a negative comment about Trump, and so they will do whatever they can to prosecute him, even if it means redefining the english language.
And by the way, THIS is what first amendment is for. Like it or not, Trump IS government. That means he is *required* to suck it up if people criticize him, just like every gov't body has done before him.
It's truely scary how you Americans are not just fucking yourselves over, but you're doing it with eyes wide open and cheers.
The principle of an omnipotent state does not differ, but the practice does. For instance, further legal action would be required for an arrest, or for any other enforcement move like taking Colbert's money from a bank account.
An arrest for refusing to pay the fine would be on a charge such as contempt of court.
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The irony of this story is that a decade ago some Americans argued Russia didn't have speech freedom because of Vladimir Rakhmankov story, a man fined for writing a newspaper article in which he called Putin a "Russia's phallic symbol".
Now I can respond to the allegations of the past. Where is your speech freedom, America?
Comedians tell similar jokes all the time about people on TV. The only difference this time is that it was about the Führer and the softies on the right will push to push to punish those that insult their leader. This is exactly how dictatorships grow. Remember the bees was just talking about Trump looking to allow new libel laws against the media? Pay attention people. The White nationalists are too busy eating the racist Kool aid to care. Even when all their liberties are gone they won't care because they will have a Fuhrer to bow down to that will make them feel better about their pathetic selves. Time for all people with sense to unite against these dumb asses before it's too late.
The difference is that the FCC is a government agency.
For how much longer? They look to be on the endangered species list.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Daddy, what did that news guy mean by saying Trump's mouth is only good as a holster for Putin's cock? I thought cocks were male chickens. Daddy, please explain it to me! Daddy can't stop laughing long enough to "explain", even if he had the spine for it. The next day little Johnny is sent home from school to change clothes, his explanation was that he asked the principal what it meant. Then the principal used little Johnny's mouth as a cock holster and sent him home. I haven't a clue why the FCC and others might be upset!
Life is in a state of dynamic equilibrium, it both blows and sucks
...but for the fact that he said cock-holster on broadcast tv.
The majority of those "outraged" are Trumpanzees defending their beloved leader. The whiny little bitches are just like fragile, delicate Trump that cries to Twitter every time someone hurts his widdle feelings. They trigger easily when their porcelain ego's are wounded, just like the Putin c**k holster in chief.
Thats like asking for a citation that Clinton was a liar.
In the case of the Clinton-era and then later Obama-era push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, they were clearly trying to use the FCC as a weapon against conservatives.
I cant think of a single conservative use of our government as vile as this use of it by the liberals, and this is only one of the things that the liberals do that is as vile and worse.... and its repeatedly made front page top of fold headlines over the decades... yet here you are asking for a citation.
Your bias is clearly doing more than shaping your future opinion. Its clearly also shaping your selective memory.
"His name was James Damore."
The difference is that the FCC is a government agency.
How is the FCC being a government agency the difference between liberals and conservatives when it comes to making complaints?
Answer: its not... but you had to defend the liberals somehow.
"His name was James Damore."
Definitely inappropriate for broadcast TV...but...who the hell watches broadcast TV anymore?
When you can't even figure out that "group X" includes many women (on the giving side) and most men/almost every aspiring young man (on the receiving side), what does that say about your human categorization tree?
Really, the only significant group of people that "group X" excludes in America are post-curiosity lesbians and the Christian evangelicals, subset prudish (minus a large, crescent-shaped bite from the om nom nom nom Venn circle "hypocrite").
[*] Most lesbians these days are post-curiosity lesbians, as the social cost of an openly lesbian lifestyle has become less obnoxious.
Colbert could easily level the playing field by finding a suitably target (male or female) with a tiny tongue to tag as "Marine Le Pen's clit carpet".
Only that would probably backfire for the worst reason: your grandfather's Leave it to Beaver infested FCC is probably still mired in distinguishing "cock" from "clit" on the obscenity scale, and he'd probably receive an even bigger fine.
Disgusting.
So you like abuse of power, so long as you don't like those it's used against. That makes you evil.
Learn to love Alaska
I really haven't been paying much attention to US politics those past 8 years...
Then kindly STFU, since you have no idea what anyone is talking about, yourself included.
Liberals aren't even part of this story. It's Trump's FCC responding to Trump's complaint about his mouth being called Vladimir Putin's cock-holster.
Trump is well-known for his thin skin when it comes to any criticism. Google "Trump thin skin" if you're not aware of this.
But the sweetest part of this entire story is how so many alt-right jackoffs who consider themselves "free speech absolutists" when it comes to calling someone a racial slur are suddenly crying for a critic of Donald Trump to be censored. You must admit, the irony is delicious.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why should anyone be fined for telling the truth? Apparently CHUMP could be renamed the "Yellow Gobbler".
Does anybody else think that Ajit Pai speaks like an ignorant person. The quotes in the article make him sound just like Trump. He speaks like he does not know what he is talking about. See here:
as we get complaints -- and we've gotten a number of them --
we've gotten a number of them??? Is that what you gotten Ajit? A number? Thanks for the important inclusion of this valuable information in the middle of your sentence Ajit.
apply the law as it's been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts
So you say that you apply law as it is written. So that is how you interpret your laws. Thanks Ajit.
And which court will judge Stephens violations? Oh it's the supreme court or one of them other ones? I hope it is the supreme court, because it is hard to recall the names of them other ones.
I don't know Ajit. But he has Trump speak.
This reminds me of a hilarous song by Monty Pythons Eric Idle that sums up what the FCC does.
https://youtu.be/jixxYx9fklM
Linkedin http://in.linkedin.com/in/robinsaikatchatterjee
Thats like asking for a citation that Clinton was a liar.
If you want a citation that shows Clinton is a liar, they're easy to come up with. If the situations are so congruent, surely you can trivially provide a citation.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Remember when the FCC was non-partisan?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
That's because yelling fire in a crowded public area is literally clear and present danger and thus not protected by the first amendment. This isn't remotely similar. This is free speech being persecuted by the FCC, governing body who imposes morality on communications, when the speech itself contained no obscenity nor violence nor anything else. It's military slang and Colbert knew that, as did literally everyone in the military and all veterans. He called Trump Putin's Yes man.