An open letter to a group of misguided liberal activists

[thatcrazycajun]

Sent to James Rucker of Color of Change at info@colorofchange.org today:

Dear Mr. Rucker:

I have received your mass e-mail asking me to join your "Turn Off Fox" campaign. While I am in sympathy with your group's mission and many of its positions on policy issues, I must take issue with your attempt to persuade businesses and other public establishments to turn off a cable television network because you disagree with the views it presents.

Please believe that I loathe the right-wing propaganda Fox News spews every bit as much as you do, and wish mightily that it were not as successful as it is. But trying to silence any media outlet whose views you dislike is morally wrong...and sets a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech. We are hypocrites if we seek to deny our opponents the right of expression that we demand for ourselves. It makes us look craven and our opponents more credible. The proper response to speech with which you disagree is with your own speech in rebuttal - and never, ever to try to shout down or silence the speaker...for the same can be done to you. If Fox's First Amendment rights can be abridged, then ours can be taken away next.

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this campaign, and devote your group's energy and resources instead to exposing the lies and half-truths Fox News spreads, to counteract its propaganda with facts and opposing views and spread them as widely as you can. It's easy to defend freedom of speech when the speech in question supports your worldview; the real test of your principles is to defend speech you abhor. However odious and dishonest its "news" coverage and opinion may be, Fox News has the same right to be heard that you and I and your group do.

Unless we are ALL free to speak, none of us truly are.

Sincerely,
Matt G. Leger

Comments

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

1) I know James Rucker, and the history of his efforts in social change. I consider him an important and impressive person in the rise of a new generation that is redefining the civil rights amd social justice movement.

2) I think that your analysis is fundamentally flawed. Nor did I care for the tone of your letter to James.

3) I believe that whatever your intent, the practical result of the position you argue is that Fox gets to speak and those who wish to protest don't. I further believe that "Fox News" is not a person, but a business. Strategies to effect social change therefore need to account for how to change its behavior. That means hitting advertising revenue.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

If my tone in the e-mail came off to you as disrespectful or inappropriate, I apologize to both you and Mr. Rucker. I had not meant to be rude, but merely to express how strongly I felt about the whole principle. I would never dream of disputing your assessment of him as an activist or a person.