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."
"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? "
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Perfect answer. Bravo.
Another point...if I may? In the liberal's mind.....The soldier humping the M-16...should call a temporary truce...find another M-16...and give it to the other person...to make the fight FAIR. Well...only if that soldier is from the Anti-One World, Capitalistic, Evil, Anti-World Peace, Religious Fanatical, Polluter...United States...Now if it's the impoverished, discriminated against, ''freedom-fighter" person..from some poor little beat-up country..then it's alright for THAT guy to have the gun...and the evil U.S. guy to have the knife.
FRegards,
I'm sick and tired of the media continually spewing this tripe and shoving their agenda down our throats. And I am glad FedEx took a stand against it.
Have you ever been fired upon by anti aircraft missles? In modern air warfare, altitude is life. It's not cowardly, it's smart. It's the other bastard who needs to die for his country, not our guys. There's a time and place to get down in the dirt, but it's not until you wipe out the other guys AA guns and missles. Please don't show your ignorance anymore. I lost some good friends in the gulf because they were too low and were taken down by AA or shoulder launched missles.
You may be right. But you've got to admit it's strange that Maher ( who usually hogs so much air time to clearly get his opinion across), didn't bother one bit to make it clear he was referring to Clinton.
That's right. I call a spade a spade. I'm tried of all this liberal garbage. Yes, they'll hear from me - and I'll politely - yes, very politely - tell them that after all these years in Houston- I'll now be "blocking out channel 13 from all our televisions in this household, permanently!"
(If my wife wants to see a particular show on 13 - I'll unblock it - then, when she is finished, I'll reblock it. If kids want to see something on 13 - I'll explain to them that we will no longer be receiving 13 - due to the fact that channel 13 airs programs that do not support our military - - they won't complain and if they do - they're outa luck.)
In fact, I'll go downstairs now and block all three of them - right Now! brb
It would plainly be absurd to accuse the pilots of fighters and bombers of cowardice. Anyone who's ever read a history of aerial warfare knows that the guys in the aircraft faced often horrific risks.
The 8th Air Force, for instance...ye gods, those guys must have been brave! There they were, flying so high that the temperature hovered around 40 below, firing guns out of the open windows of their airplanes. Incredible. And a huge percentage of them never made it back.
But one could reasonably point out that America's practice of aerial warfare in some cases has been rather cowardly. Bush himself made the point recently, when he described firing missiles at tents and hitting camels. In its desperate desire to minimize casualties, our military has used tactics designed to deliver death from above, with minimal risk to our own forces. These methods are precisely the least likely to be effective against a Saddam Hussein, but our leaders don't dare use anything else. Instead, they drop bombs that, as often as not, end up killing a few civilians. Surely it's not unreasonable to see a certain cowardice in this.
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Just gave them a piece of my mind.
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What an idiotic perspective. Let's see. Some joe's got a beef with you. He beats the crap outta your defenseless wife and child and set your house on fire. He's not a coward?
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