Linda Rondstadt fired for supporting Michael Moore! What about freedom of Speech?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ming


Yes... let's compare comedians

Okay, Miller: not fired.
Whoopie: fired

[Kidlicious]

Ming would actually have us believe that republicans, as a whole, are just as tolerant as others.

[DinoDoc]

They sang along and showered her with applause. Until . she dedicated her encore song, "Desperado," to filmmaker Michael Moore, whom she called "a great patriot," and suggested that people go see his new, Bush-bashing documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

I call bull****.

Her performance was uninspired and generally flat. She lacked stage presence, doing little more than sleepwalk from song to song.

The fiasco at the end was the most exciting part of the show.

[MosesPresley]

Linda Rondstadt has sucked, to put it succinctly, for years imo, but I am sure her audience was enjoying the show. Why else would they be there?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Republicans have the 'if you're not conservative, you're unpatriotic' thing, and their going to use it. It works for them.

This year, the Republicans' campaign theme will be solidly focused on the Three R's.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MosesPresley
Linda Rondstadt has sucked, to put it succinctly, for years imo, but I am sure her audience was enjoying the show. Why else would they be there?

Straw that broke the camel's back, I imagine.

[JohnT]

Bill Press is unable to see the difference between a political rally and a concert?

[Ming]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Okay, Miller: not fired.
Whoopie: fired

Hmmm... let's see.. Whoopie was fired as a product spokesperson because the company didn't think she was an appropriate spokesperson anymore because it was hurting sales, because of comments made at a political rally. Most spokesperson contracts have a clause allowing the company to fire somebody if they act in public in a way that may harm the company. She was fired NOT by the event she spoke at... She was fired because a private company thought she no longer represent the views of their primary target audience. Happens all the time in the business world... and again, she didn't get fired by the people at the event that she was at.

Dennis Miller didn't get fired at the event he was speaking at either

Again... turn on the radio... watch TV... tell me you don't see comedians making Bush and Kerry jokes. Heck, political humor is a staple of most comedians. And they aren't losing their jobs. They will be able to get indorsement contracts from liberal companies or conservative companies based on their own "PUBLIC VIEW"... Anybody that is a product for spokesperson for a conservative company and wants to bash conservateves, should expect to lose that contract. The same holds true for any liberal that is a spokesperson for a liberal company...

So compare apples to apples... not apples to oranges like you and the author of the piece are.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Ming
liberal companies

[MichaeltheGreat]

You don't have to be a raging conservative to have the ability to start and run a company.

[Ming]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
You don't have to be a raging conservative to have the ability to start and run a company.

So ture.. There are many liberal companies out there... Many of the traditional high tech start ups are liberal leaning companies... and how can we forget the New York Times Company

[Agathon]

The idea that people would care about someone's political affiliation when that person is advertising a weight loss product is just dumb. It's political infantilism.

It's not like Whoopi Goldberg expressed her admiration for Hitler or anything.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Agathon
The idea that people would care about someone's political affiliation when that person is advertising a weight loss product is just dumb. It's political infantilism.

Maybe you should take a few courses on Marketing to understand the relationship between a spokesperson, the company, and the customer.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by MosesPresley
Linda Rondstadt has sucked, to put it succinctly, for years imo, but I am sure her audience was enjoying the show. Why else would they be there?

We had a famous basketball player in our hospital the other day, I checked on the A/C in his room (which was fine) just so I could say I met "The Iceman".

ACK!

[Agathon]

Maybe you should live in a country where people don't engage in childish boycotts of products because they disagree with the political views of the spokesperson.

If Whoopi Goldberg had expressed admiration for Hitler or some viewpoint which is considered vile by all reasonable people, I could understand it. I'm not blaming the company (although I suspect that they were doing it for political reasons), I'm blaming a culture where people would stop buying a weight loss product because the spokesperson made jokes about a political candidate.

I wouldn't dream of boycotting a weight loss product Dennis Miller endorsed just because he supports Bush and makes jokes about Kerry. That's just stupid.

As I said earlier in the thread, the problem is not with the law or with people expressing their opinions, but with a culture that cannot accept that a fair degree of tolerance is required for free speech to flourish effectively.

In a society committed to freedom of political expression, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint (of course there are caveats, like serious hate organizations - but this isn't true of most cases), the first thing people should think is, "I disagree with that for the following reasons..." They should not think, "how can I, to the best of my ability, stop that viewpoint from being expressed?"