Posted on 04/30/2014 3:10:10 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(CNN) -- This past week, my inbox blew up with e-mails asking whether Donald Sterling's First Amendment rights were violated in the uproar over the Los Angeles Clippers owner's racist remarks about black people. After all, he was simply expressing his views, however unpopular.
While he did have some rights violated, his First Amendment rights remain intact.
The First Amendment protects you from the government punishing you because of your speech. The NBA is a private club, and it can discipline Sterling all it wants.
What about the chorus of criticism? Are we all violating his First Amendment rights by criticizing him? We are punishing him for his speech.
Nope. The First Amendment does not insulate you from criticism. In fact, that's the First Amendment in action. That is how the marketplace of ideas works. We float our ideas in the marketplace, and we see which idea sells.
Most everyone would agree that Sterling's ideas fail in the marketplace of ideas. Nevertheless, I reluctantly stand on Sterling's side today. What happened to him may have been illegal and was morally wrong.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Morally wrong. Yet clearly Sterling is - to coin a cute phrase - a sterling example someone who is morally wrong. So. Do two moral wrongs make a right?
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No, but three thefts do. :{)
Depends.... if he was recorded in California then the state law will dictate secret recording and realize of same.
This isn’t a logic problem nor a math equation.....both sides can be wrong.
The NBA is a private club, and it can discipline Sterling all it wants. ...Heh.What happened to him may have been illegal ...
Well the queers got a scalp from the Mozilla guy, so now the blacks get a scalp. Equilibrium in the world of PC victinhood has been restored!
This whole drama is bizarre.
He’s supposedly racist but has a black/Hispanic mistress? He says he loves black people but doesn’t want his mistress seen with them although she can private do whatever with minorities.
This is, to me, a sad demented elderly human being that should have known better but didn’t.
If this is the set up to force him to sell an improving team at fire sale prices, as a FRiend recently put it, “Well played.”
To quote Deteriorata:
“Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.”
It’s all worth it if it opens up a team for minority ownership. /SARC
Is it right to treat someone immorally if he is immoral? It certainly is far easier to rationalize why Sterling should be punished for his private opinions surreptitiously obtained. Aside from his words, what did he do wrong? Shouldn't actions be the metric and not an opinion expressed in private?
Well said.
“The NBA is a private club”
How much must something be subsidized before its considered ‘not a private club’.
Yeah, especially with all those non-bigoted, moral choirboys playing in the NBA
A boy in school recorded some other boys bullying him. When he too the recording to the Principle he got kicked out of school. The liberals are ruled by hate not law.
Praise for a whining sniveling Commissioner that saw his 60 mins of fame! The convo was a personal one and did not involve any player or member of the Clipper Team or Staff! A leak from a Gold Digger involved with an adversary of a man who owns a major business and was not intended to be publicized!
One paragraph of private convo is to take a man down and virtually ruin his livelihood! Silver is wrong and I hope Sterling sues the hell out of the NBA and Wins! Obama to Russians “After the Election I will have more Flexibility!”
Look at the Ukraine could that be misconstrued as do as you wish to a nation and it’s population!
Sterling’s ideas fail in the marketplace of ideas
Maybe. But, the ‘Market Place of Ideas” is infinite in its depth and breadth. The ‘Vast Majority’, usually WRONG, determines which idea becomes the ‘accepted norm’.
Does this mean that ALL other ideas, and those beholden to them, should be crucified, fined, impoverished ?
Tolerance used to be an American Ideal.
The Republic is (fill in the blank)...
No inconsistency in those two statements. The NBA had the legal right to do what it did. Whoever taped Sterling and/or released the tapes may have violated California eavesdropping statutes.
Just remember “You can’t yell FIRE in a crowded theater” and you shouldn’t dis your whore in your kitchen.
Vox Populi
We’ve entered an era where people are now being punished for “wrong thinking”. I don’t care if someone’s thoughts are wrong, I care about his actions. And he did nothing that was wrong, morally or otherwise.
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