tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post6519512655190977100..comments2024-01-22T18:22:29.391-08:00Comments on hedera's corner: In Defense of John Yoohederahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-36728372135979786822008-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:002008-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:00Yessiree, right on.Noam Chomsky made exactly the s...Yessiree, right on.<BR/><BR/>Noam Chomsky made exactly the same point in defending a French pol who had insisted that the Holocaust was a fiction. <BR/><BR/>It is precisely in those instances in which the most egregious things are said, by the most disgusting persons imaginable, that our freedom of speech is most challenged, and most needs defending.<BR/><BR/>The internet is a new medium which has caused everyone to re-confront the issue of free speech. Blogs are proprietary, and as anyone knows, free speech doesn't extend to enforcing total accommodation upon private venues. You can't force a bookseller to sell a dirty book. You can't make a radio station give unfettered air time to opponents. What does happen with increasing frequency, in my experience, is that partisan blog-site-owners espouse an especially radical position, but when discussion veers away from their agenda, instead of merely bullying the opposition, they start deleting posts, or summarily close down the discussion box. In some extreme instances, I've had perfectly reasonable posts deleted by administrators, and then "described" (mischaracterized) by the blog-owner. It's one thing to be censored; it's quite another to be libeled without even having the offending evidence presented.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com