Firing the 'Politically Incorrect' is censorship

HoustonChronicle.com ^ | Nov. 14, 2001, 6:17PM | NORAH VINCENT

[Gordian Blade]

In many universities, it is nearly impossible for a conservative assistant professor to get tenure in a department that has strong political overtones, like Political Science (of course), Psychology, Economics, Sociology, etc. In Hollywood, it is difficult for aspiring actors to admit a conservative leaning without jeopardizing their careers. Once I start seeing crocodile tears from ACLU types about them, I'll have a tiny bit of sympathy for left-wing professors who go too far in promoting their own political agendas.

[rw4site]

This Link from reply #1 is the statement of Larry R. Faulkner, president The University of Texas.

[TexanAmerican]

I've been reading this commie queer's crap for a while now. If he wants to say that garbage, fine. We'll send him over to join his pals the Taliban over in the mid-east.

[OWK]

What Prof Jensen and the free-dunce writer want to do is force others to pay for Prof Jensen's soapbox. That's where the denial of freedom works into the calculus.

Amazing how this is so clear to your here, but escapes your notice elsewhere.

[Kevin Curry]

Then we agree. Neither the professor nor Rocker should lose their jobs.

Perhaps we ought to require your precious and beloved pornography industry (you are an award-winning producer or technician of pornographic fims, are you not?) to give equal time to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to break into the film action every four or five minutes with a plea for the souls of the viewers. If they ask for that right and you say "No," that would be a denial of their First Amendment rights according to your standards, would it not?

[A. Pole]

Here's a hint. No one is censoring the perfessor. He was, is and will be free to say any stupid damn thing he wants. The USCON does not afford him any privilege from being exempt from the ramification of such "free" speech however.

It reminds me an old Soviet joke from the Radio Yerevan series:

Question:
"Is it true that in Soviet Union we have absolute freedom of the speech?"
Answer:
"Yes, it is true that we have the absolute freedom of the speech, but not AFTER the speech"

[aculeus]

Left-wing editors and television producers 'censor' conservatives every day.

Payback is a bitch.

[Kevin Curry]

Amazing how this is so clear to your here, but escapes your notice elsewhere.

Not amazing that you never bother to read anything carefully enough to know what you're talking about.

I have never advocated anything less than the robust exchange of views as well as the right of a private employer to hire and fire as he wishes. E.g., I have resisted the efforts of gay activists to shut Laura Schlesinger down by boycotts, but never have I suggested they were in the wrong for using boycotts for that purpose.

It is the mush-brained libertarians who cannot draw essential distinctions between message and method, between person and perversion.

Don't blame me for errors that arise in in your mind due to your own faulty eyesight.

[Godfollow]

Boooring, boooring, boooring

[hocndoc]

Ok, how do we get this guy fired?

We have the right to "chose" where our money should go. Any law such as the one he proposes to prevent advertiser pull out would violate the free speech of everyone. Boycott and protest is the way we ordinary citizens influence the country almost as much as our vote. (Sometimes more)

Not every one has a platform like the author's. He would use his advantage to weaken our small advantage.

[IW]

When it comes down to free speech, I'm all for it. The main deal is, just who has the biggest Bullhorn and longest lasting batteries.

[scooter2]

If one can't speak out against the government, one might as well live under a dictatorship.

The professor is free to think and say anything he damned well pleases. However, he should not be allowed to speak thusly using a tax-payer supported soap box.

[wwjdn]

Amen to that, or at least limit tenure.

[prov1813man]

The hypocrisy and gaul of these fossilized relics of the sixties is breathtaking. They have been terrorizing, isolating and terminating anyone on campus who fails to repeat the left-socialist mantra for decades. The countries whose activities they defend would find their treasonous slanders cause for a firing squad, here, in extreme circumstances, they might just get fired. In my view, they are domestic enemies and should be treated as such.

[OWK]

Uhhhhhh... OK

[A. Pole]

Amen to that, or at least limit tenure.

If you limit tenure the professors will become as conformist as journalists are. Better is to suffer the wrong speech (including leftist) than to abolish it altogether. The tenure is in place for a good reason and it is one of the key stones protecting the freedom. This institution predates United States and derives from Europe. Do not tinker with it .

[IowaHawk]

Boo Hoo. Smell the martyrdom.

I'm sure Nora Vincent would feel the same way about a a UT professor organizing an Aryan Nations rally on campus, where he gives a speech denying the Holocaust. Or if ABC cancelled "Politically Incorrect with Fred Phelps."

[wwjdn]

I strogly disagree, our education system is gone to the dogs. They are teaching our children to be mindless sheep who can't think. Then we have college professors that are biased and hateful, I know I was in Vietnam. College professors were and still are famous for inciting radical ideals instead of just teaching. They should not be allowed a public forum (a closed classroom) to vent their own personal agenda's.

[Captain Kirk]

Watch out. On campuses all across the country, conservative and libertarian professors and students are being persecuted under speech codes. Arguments similar to yours can be easily used, and are used, for the racial McCarthyites. Conservatives and libertarians need to uphold the doctrine of free speech, or nobody else will.