Red-White-And-Blue Blacklisting

nyNewsday.com ^ | April 24, 2003 | Ellias Henican

[Chirodoc]

Call it red-white-and-blue baiting.

Forty-nine years after Army lawyer Joseph Welch shot Sen. Joseph McCarthy that famously withering glance -- "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" -- the blacklists are coming back big time.

But instead of McCarthy's paranoid search for secret Communists inside the U.S. government, private-sector bullies are now targeting almost anyone with anti-war views and a microphone.

Dixie Chick Natalie Maines dares to speak ill of fellow-Texan George W. Bush on a stage in London? Country radio stations from Maine to Arizona yank the Chicks' new CD from their play lists.

Comic Janeane Garofalo campaigns against bombing Iraq? A boycott is called immediately against ABC and its advertisers, demanding the network yank a proposed Garofalo sitcom.

[goldstategop]

Its not a government blacklist. There is no First Amendment right here which covers only governmental conduct. And the nerve of the Left crying about their celebrities being silenced is rich. When conservatives were gagged for decades they shrugged their shoulders and said tough luck, grow up. Now that the shoe is on the other foot their whining how bad it hurts. Oh poor baby. Did they really think they'd be given a pass on their America-bashing? People have had enough of it and for the record I'm all for the Red, White, And Blue List. If those on it don't like it, they can move to France or Canada where they'll find a ready audience for their views.

[Jonez712]

That's ridiculous. If someone is undermining our war effort, or engaging in whatever actions individual Americans find repugnant, we have the right now to support their products. This isn't black listing, or us taking away their rights to free speech, it's us exercising our own right to free speech.

We are not required to support people we hate, and we have a right to hate people who speak out against our country. Learn it.

[Jonez712]

That is, not to support their products.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

[Kadric]

I'll think about what their saying once they start saying that Lott and Santorum have a right of free speech also.

[MEG33]

Hennican is such a silly little goose.I saw him on Fox and could not bear him.

[anymouse]

Apparently Sen. McCarthy was all too right.

Unfortunately the commies have entrenched themselves in the media so thoroughly that they dare mere citizens in flyover country to use the power of the purse to show their disapproval of their anti-Americanism.

In a sane world writers like this should be ashamed to write such hypocritical rubbish.

I guess public ridicule of these commies is our only recource. Although I sort of long for Sen. Joe's approach. :)

[MEG33]

Henican

[the lone wolf]

Let me get this straight: scumbag Leftists are now saying that they can say or do ANYTHING and I must not take that into account when I decide if I want to purchase a product made or endorsed by them.

Total B.S.

Remember, these are some of the same people that demended a boycott of businesses in the Deep South because of alleged "racism". Or boycotts of entire nations, such as South Africa.

I guess it really does depend upon whose ox has been gored.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>Hennican is such a silly little goose.I saw him on Fox and could not bear him.

You're being much too nice. He's a loathsome oaf.

[noutopia]

Hennican is democrat mouthpiece,he is also a little lite in the loafers.

[MissAmericanPie]

"But instead of McCarthy's paranoid search for secret Communists inside the U.S. government"

You have to ask yourself just how paranoid McCarth was considering we have 50 members of congress that are members of the American Socialist Party. About now I am wishing we could clone him since no media will bring this fact out.

[Keith in Iowa]

My e-mail to the bloviator:

You just don't get it. There's no blacklisting going on - it's consumers using their freedom of choice in where they spend their entertainment dollars - with performers who represent a viewpoint with which they agree.

Funny how you liberals are in favor of doing that when it comes to boycotting business that had dealings in South Africa, or when Susan Sarandon and her ilk successfully campaigned to kill Dr. Laura's TV program.

Where was your outrage then? It was liberals blacklisting conservative expression. And you're fine with that, aren't you? Turn the tables, and it's McCarthyism. You're a hypocrite.

henican@newsday.com

Freep him.

[JoJo Gunn]

You forgot that the HomoFascists went after Michael Savage also.

Oops, the scrivener of this "article" forgot too.

[FixitGuy]

BS!

Ain't McArthy-ism, it's Americanism.

When the PEOPLE speak in one voice,(almost) folks need to listen.

[FrankR]

My eMail to Henican

"But apparently, there is a ready market for this neo-McCarthyism"

Ya know, you need to get over yourself. There's no "McCarthyism" going on here, and you know it.
These boycotts don't have a thing to do with the government, or hearings, or trials...just a bunch of patriotic Americans pissed off at a few pompous elitists who dare slam our President, the Military, or America in general.

Any semblance of "McCarthyism" is coming from the liberal press, who symbolically agree with the Dixie Chicks, et al, and are now running to their defense...in reverence to Diane Sawyer giving them a spot on TV. Too bad it only made them look worse...and even more stupid.

And, just what is this sh*t?:

"Is this really what we mean by tolerance and free expression?"

"Is that the cost of robust public debate?"
"Can loyalty oaths be far behind?

" The "Ditzy" Chicks, et al, can have all the "free expression" they want...but what you (and your media ilk) don't get is, WE AIN'T GOT TO LIKE IT.

Maybe I can make it simple...even for a liberal;

I DON'T LIKE SPINACH...THEREFORE I DON'T BUY SPINACH. SPINACH GROWERS, CANNERS, ETC., CAN ALL APOLOGIZE TO ME FOR THE "BAD TASTE" OF SPINICH.... BUT I STILL WON'T LIKE IT. THEREFORE, I DON'T BUY IT.

So far, the Ditzy Chicks have not apologized...they've only - in effect - said, ""F**k you America if you don't like what we said...we're the Dixie Chicks and we can say anything we want!"

They're not sorry for what they said, only sorry that it backlashed and they're losing money over it. They're so afraid, they've stipped naked.

"They must never work again, the red-white-and-blue baiters say. "

Is this your pathetic little liberal way to try and "shame" people for taking a stand against something they don't like?

You libs take stands like this everyday, except yours is usually against religion, polution, bigatry, etc.
I think the trouble is, the liberals and their lap-dog press have all of a sudden fallen out of favor with Americans, and you don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot.

The drone of the whining from the left is turning into a roar. Liberal lefties are pacing the floor looking for an angle that will "take" with the American public. However, the left never read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", and have no clue about what is in store for them in the foreseeable future.

I'm glad to see you smiling in your "glamour shot", better get it all in while you can...oh, and quit trying to make this thing some sort of First Amendment violation...the Government hasn't banned the "Chicks"...just us "Red-White_and-Blue-Baiters". There is nothing wrong with anything associated with the Red-White-and-Blue.

[Zon]

Its not a government blacklist. 2

That's ridiculous. 3

Let me get this straight: scumbag Leftists are now saying that they can say or do ANYTHING and I must not take that into account when I decide if I want to purchase a product made or endorsed by them. 9

What are they going to do -- force me to buy their products?

Somebody should tell these yahoos that if they were championing pedophilia -- which is antagonist to the majority -- they'd receive a similar reaction. And they'd still get free speech protection via the First Amendment. Of course, their sales would plummet that much faster and deeper.

[demosthenes the elder]

hrmn...
1. the boycotts and backlash against mediots and limolefties is not a government action, and...
2. documents from the former USSR show rather clearly that McCarthy was right on target, not paranoid.
the author of this scribble is either a dumbass or a liar.
bets, anyone?

[ohioman]

Ellias Henican is your sterotypcial liberal male-a complete wuss pining for fantasyland.

[quebecois]

I really get a kick out of these libs whining about the backlash against them for badmouthing america. The truth is that the libs have been operating a particularly nasty sort of McCarthyism (a term that I dislike, since almost all of the folks accused of being commies by the good senator have been subsequently shown to have actually been Soviet spies) for the past 30 years. How many stories have we all read over the past decades of people thrown to the wolves for making some off-hand remark that offends political correctness? Senator Lott? Senator Santorum? Jimmy the Greek? Al Campanis?

The libs have writting the book on witch-burning of heretics....and now they are crying that the flames are torching their own fannies.