Posted on 09/19/2001 9:35:35 AM PDT by jern
Sept. 19, 2001, 9:00AM
Federal Express ordered its ads removed from the ABC late-night series Politically Incorrect on Tuesday after the show's host referred to recent U.S. military actions as "cowardly."
After receiving complaints from around the country, including Houston, Federal Express reviewed Monday's edition of the show and decided to act, company spokesperson Carla Richards said.
Richards said she did not know how many complaints the company received, but that they were of sufficient quantity to merit the actions the company took.
"The (30-second) ad that runs during that show has been pulled for the indefinite future," Richards said.
Dinesh D'Souza, a panelist on Monday's show, quibbled with a reference made by President George W. Bush that the suicide bombers were cowards, noting that they gave up their lives for whatever may be their cause.
"These are warriors," D'Souza said, "and we have to realize that the principles of our way of life are in conflict with people in the world."
"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away," said Bill Maher, the host of Politically Incorrect. "That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
"I was just appalled," said Dan Patrick, general manager of KSEV (700 AM) and host of a radio talk show. "When you call our men in the (armed forces) cowards and our military policy cowardly, and when you call these hijackers `warriors,' that should not be tolerated."
Patrick urged listeners to call KTRK and urge the station to stop carrying the "irresponsible" program. Other hosts of KSEV talk shows made the same request.
"The First Amendment gives us the freedom of speech, but it does not guarantee anyone a TV show or a TV camera or a radio show, for that matter," Patrick said. "If Bill Maher believes that Americans are cowards and hijackers are warriors, let him go out on the street corner and shout that. But Disney does not have to give him a TV show and Channel 13 does not have to air that show."
KTRK said it received a number of calls -- "in the low hundreds," the station said. The station said it receives triple that amount when it pre-empts a soap opera. It had no further comment.
ABC issued a statement saying, in part, that Politically Incorrect "celebrates freedom of speech and encourages the animated exchange of ideas and opinions. Understandably, this forum can oftentimes arouse intense emotions, especially during such a sensitive time.
"While we remain sensitive to the current climate following last week's tragedy, and continue to do our part to help viewers cope with unfolding events, we have an obligation to offer a forum for the expression of our nation's diverse opinions."
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This is a silly comment, IMO. If I have a M-16 and a person is coming at me with a knife 200 yards away...should I wait until he is 5 feet away before I pull the trigger? In war, dead is dead. The point is to kill the other guy before they kill you. If they never see you, all the better...fear, from an unseen source of death, gives the others pause.
Conjecture: Soap operas have three times the viewing audience as PI?
I hope they pull the entire show. Maher is a classic pettifogging sniveler, he was/is/ever-shall-be a disgrace.
That is one of the dumbest comments I've heard, especially coming from someone named ARCLIGHT Guam to Nam Operation Arclight: South Vietnam 18 June 1965
Tell that to the Rangers who were butchered and dragged through the streets in Somalia. Or to the families of the 58,000 names on The Wall. The US military has paid its dues. Maher is pathetic.
If they had taken over a military transport full of soldiers and flown that into the WTC's then you could call them something other than cowards.
But they didn't do that, did they?
Go fart in some other elevator.
Let's watch the other advertisers on his show.
Think about the affect upon Disney now that air traffic is down and families won't be traveling to Orlando to visit Disney World. Don't be surprised if Eisner starts to back off his 'Great Leap Forward' (e.g. Disney Political Correctness). How Disney reacts to this Maher episode should give a pretty good indication.
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