Bill Maher is right to be alarmed today:
A new survey found that a majority of high schoolers think newspapers
should not be allowed to publish without government approval. And
almost one in five said that Americans should be prohibited from
expressing unpopular opinions.
Lemme tell you little darlings something: This is my livelihood you’re
messing with, so either learn the Bill of Rights or you don’t deserve
Social Security.
As someone else who relies heavily on the right to speak my mind, I am as scared as Bill is about this. I love freedom. Unfortunately, the trend in our country is going the wrong way. For the second time in few days, the government voted for a bill that will undoubtedly hinder it.
The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would
raise the maximum fines that could imposed on broadcasters that run
indecent material to $500,000 for each violation.
The bill,
endorsed by President Bush, would also increase the maximum fines the
Federal Communications Commission could levy against individual
performers to $500,000 from $11,000, and would make it easier to impose
such penalties. Broadcasting companies can now be fined up to $32,500 a
violation.
I guess I’ll cancel my Ward Churchill and Chris Rock interviews for this week’s radio show.
UPDATE: Here is a good piece on censorship and Ward Churchill from Ted Rall.
UPDATE II: Big Brother in a chip at our schools?