Posted on 04/13/2004 1:12:46 PM PDT by Fierce Allegiance
RICHMOND, Va. - CBS Television, which passed on the miniseries "The Reagans" amid conservative pressure, and the Martha Stewart (news - web sites) trial judge are among this year's winners of the dubious Jefferson Muzzle awards for suppression of free speech.
AP Photo
A federal judge and the Secret Service also earned "muzzles" awarded Tuesday.
CBS was cited "for acts of self-censorship demonstrating both hypocrisy and an unwillingness to stand up to public and political pressure," the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression said in a statement.
CBS also refused to air a 30-second commercial from Moveon.org, a group critical of the Bush administration, during the Super Bowl, while it allowed erectile dysfunction commercials and the halftime show featuring Janet Jackson (news)'s bared breast, it said.
Other muzzles recipients announced in the 13th annual edition of the awards include Baseball Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey, who canceled a 15th anniversary showing of "Bull Durham" because of opposition to the Iraq (news - web sites) war by its stars, Susan Sarandon (news) and Tim Robbins (news).
"Although the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and more recently the war in Iraq have created new pressures on free speech, an examination of this year's and previous Jefferson Muzzle winners reveals that threats to free expression come from all over the political spectrum," said Robert M. O'Neil, director of the center.
The autonomous, not-for-profit center is associated with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Its trustees include Judith G. Clabes, president of the Scripps Howard Foundation, columnist James J. Kilpatrick, and Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek.
Each year, the muzzle awards are handed out on the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. Recipients receive a T-shirt that depicts the nation's third president and First Amendment advocate with a muzzle.
U.S. District Judge Miriam G. Cedarbaum received a muzzle for barring reporters from jury selection in the Martha Stewart trial. An appeals court later said she erred, but by that time jury selection had been completed.
The Secret Service (news - web sites) was cited for investigating whether Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times could be charged with "threatening the life" of President Bush (news - web sites) for a cartoon depicting a man pointing a gun at Bush.
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On the Net:
http://www.tjcenter.org
But to these pinheads, that's censorship.
Muzzle awards for suppression of free speech.
Apparently, only liberal viewpoints can be “muzzled.”
Shutting out conservative opinions, such as regularly occurs on college campuses, is just dandy.
Fantastic, in fact.
It happens every day and night on network TV - 1 sided liberal DNC talking points 100% of the time.
Any outfit with a Newsweek person on its board is suspect. No outfit that would allow Eleanor Clift to publicly claim to be employed by it could possibly claim to be for free speech.
Well then Bobby-boy, why aren't you including the left in your list of free speech muzzlers-or at least not in your press release? Did you ever bother to recognize the campaigns against Dr.Laura? Does someone have the full list of "winners?"
One of the "muzzled" people in the article, Michael Ramirez, is a conservative, with a conservative viewpoint, if you've ever seen his work.
The particular cartoon in question was looked into by the secret service because it was mistakenly perceived as a threat against President Bush.
The people giving this award were not angered by censorship of his conservative viewpoint, they were complaining that his right to threaten a Republican president was questioned (even though that was not his intent with the cartoon.)
This is the most classic example of Bennett's "Defining Deviancy Down" that I have seen in recent times.
Regards,
TS
No sympathy for these big babies here.
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