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

[Dis]

I think we need another freedom of speech thread.

I read the entire article. I can't believe she was booted off the property just for dedictating a song to Michael Moore. Las Vegas was the wrong place to be doing that. We're still a conservative town for the most part. And tourists here don't want to hear that crap, they come here for vacation. They want to get away from politics.

Although I can see firing her as a business desicion. If almost half of your fans walk out of your concert, that won't bode well for future concert sales.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/drudged/517195568.html

[David Floyd]

This isn't a freedom of speech issue - the 1st Amendment doesn't apply outside of the government and what the government does.

The casino was fully within their rights to kick her out.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It isn't a Freedom of Speech issue. You have to right to speak your mind, but then your employer has the right to decide to let you use his/her property to express those views. It'd be a free speech issue if the employer was the government.

[David Floyd]

I promise Imran and I didn't collaborate on the last two posts

[Imran Siddiqui]

Damn you, Floyd!

[Ben Kenobi]

Hey, if a business can let me go for protesting on company time, then they can do the same for Ronstadt.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Hey, if a business can let me go for protesting on company time, then they can do the same for Ronstadt.

My God, what idiots.

Never, ever, let the company know your political leanings.

[Ben Kenobi]

Why not?

If it doesn't matter, why should they care what you do on your own time?

The only thing I can think of is that it does matter, even though they say it doesn't.

And for the record, I have not been fired for protesting, it's just a hypothetical example.

[debeest]

What's particularly telling is that they didn't even let her go back to her room to pick up her own stuff. That's not just termination of employment -- that's harassment and intimidation. A right-winger would have been better treated if they had expressed support for Hitler.

Can anyone say "the right-wing insistence on political correctness is far stronger than the left-wing PC?"

[Ben Kenobi]

Can anyone say "the right-wing insistence on political correctness is far stronger than the left-wing PC?"

Is her employer a Republican?

It's not good for business to bring politics into a situation where people are trying to get away from politics.

[Dis]

Originally posted by David Floyd
This isn't a freedom of speech issue - the 1st Amendment doesn't apply outside of the government and what the government does.

The casino was fully within their rights to kick her out.

yeah I know. I just needed to get the conversation started.

[debeest]

Ben:

Thus it's understandable that they won't hire her. But come on, now -- "escorted from the premises" without even being allowed to go back to her room to get her own things? Reverse the politics and picture the insane gay-bashing, race-baiting, fascist hatred that it would take to induce that reaction.

[Ming]

Many people are fired, and are escorted off the property with their personal items shipped to them... but I guess some people have to make this a right wing vs left wing rant... typical

[debeest]

Ming, you often insult someone and then put a winking smiley with it, as if to say that you're just kidding -- but I don't think you are.

Come on, come right out and say it -- you seriously don't believe that this is a right-wing owner and purely a political issue.

[Imran Siddiqui]

So what if he doesn't? Why does he have to 'come right out and say it'? To waste a post?

I think:

Hundreds of angry fans streamed from the theater as Ronstadt sang. Some of them reportedly defaced posters of her in the lobby, writing comments and tossing drinks on her pictures.

points to the fact that this ain't a political issue with the owner at all, but a business issue.