IP: Arianna's Latest Column [on the Bill Maher flap]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 09:02:06 -0700
> To: farber () dsl cis upenn edu
> From: Denise Caruso <caruso () hybridvigor org>
> Subject: Fwd: Arianna's Latest Column [on the Bill Maher flap]
>
> > > Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:24:56 -0500
> > > From: Arianna Huffington <arianna () ariannaonline com>
> > > Subject: Arianna's Latest Column
> > >
> > > Friends,
> > >
> > > As you will see from today's column, we need your help if we are to stop ABC
> > > from canceling "Politically Incorrect."  A small group of zealots have
> > > intentionally distorted comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in
> > > putting the show's future in jeopardy.   If you agree that we can
> > > simultaneously rally around the flag and allow dissent and free speech to
> > > flourish, please log on to www4.PetitionOnline.com/promaher/petition.html
> > > and sign the petition.
> > >
> > > Also, if you know anybody in the ABC or Disney hierarchy, please give them a
> > > call.  This is not just about one show -- it's about avoiding the first step
> > > on a really dangerous slippery slope.  Thank you so much.
> > >
> > > Arianna
> > >
> > >
> > > LAND OF THE FREE?
> > >
> > > Since Sept. 11, we've been told again and again that our failure to act in a
> > > certain way would be the moral equivalent of allowing the terrorists to win.
> > > As in: "If we don't get back to work, they win"; or "If we don't go ahead
> > > and play football this weekend, they win"; or "If this changes the way we
> > > think about Arab-Americans, they win."
> > >
> > > And, in a way, it's true -- few us of are going to be fighting the battle on
> > > the ground in Afghanistan, but there are ways in which we can all do our
> > > part. Ways that include resolutely defending values that define our country.
> > > But just as this new military battleground is going to be complicated and
> > > risky, so, too, is the one at home. And in the last few days, there is one
> > > front where it appears that our enemies might be winning: the First
> > > Amendment. To the extent that we give up our fundamental freedoms of
> > > expression and dissent, then, yes, "they" have clearly won.
> > >
> > > One of those battles is going on right now. It involves Bill Maher, who has
> > > been excoriated for what he said on "Politically Incorrect" last week. But
> > > excoriation -- a valuable form of free speech -- is not a problem.
> > > Censorship is.
> > >
> > > Aren't "they" winning when three ABC affiliates, including the Washington,
> > > D.C., station, cancel the show?
> > >
> > > Aren't "they" winning when networks cave in to rabble-rousing,
> > > self-promoting radio shock jocks like Dan Patrick from Houston who started
> > > this tempest in a teapot, and who midweek called the show to suggest himself
> > > as a guest?
> > >
> > > And aren't "they" winning when major sponsors like Federal Express and Sears
> > > put a higher price on their corporate image than on the essential democratic
> > > ingredient of free speech by pulling their ads? These companies have no
> > > problems defending capitalism, but they shrink from defending the values
> > > that make it possible.
> > >
> > > When the country just learned with such penetrating anguish what real terror
> > > is, how can the corporate logo polishers fear Bill Maher? Particularly when
> > > the point he was making was such an important one.
> > >
> > > So what, exactly, was his point?
> > >
> > > In response to guest Dinesh D'Souza's assertion that people who are willing
> > > to die in service to their cause, whatever else they may be, are not
> > > "cowards," Maher said: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles
> > > from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly."
> > >
> > > I was sitting next to Bill when he said this. And not only did I not object,
> > > I wholeheartedly agreed. In fact, in the past, I've made much the same
> > > criticism of a foreign policy that obliges our military to fight at great
> > > remove from the theater of battle. It was a mistake when we bombed a
> > > pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan, and it was a mistake when we killed the
> > > very Albanian refugees we were trying to protect with our indiscriminate
> > > carpet-bombing of Kosovo.
> > >
> > > President Bush, himself, has been making much the same point that Bill Maher
> > > did: "It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no
> > > ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat."
> > >
> > > Presumably, if Maher had made those same comments on Sept. 10, nobody would
> > > have batted an eyelid. But by uttering the same opinion seven days later, he
> > > put the very existence of his show at risk.
> > >
> > > Have we all gone mad?
> > >
> > > What becomes of a country when opinions considered perfectly legitimate --
> > > and indeed uttered by hundreds of academics, journalists and members of
> > > Congress -- suddenly become a crime worthy of the media death penalty?
> > >
> > > If the attacks on innocent American lives end up making us more like our
> > > attackers, don't they most spectacularly win? And don't the corporate
> > > sponsors, the affiliates and ABC itself see the inconsistency in the fact
> > > that, as a way of showing solidarity against the Taliban, they are using the
> > > Taliban's trademark weapon -- the stifling of dissent?
> > >
> > > Isn't freedom what we're fighting for? And isn't lack of freedom --
> > > including freedom of the press -- the hallmark of our enemies?
> > >
> > > "Cowardly" was the injurious word uttered by Maher. Well, let me use it now
> > > where it really belongs -- to describe ABC if it decides to cancel a show
> > > that is, after all, called "Politically Incorrect."
> > >
> > > The show in question was the first since the attack. At curtain time, the
> > > studio was electric with anxiety. "Politically Incorrect," though it deals
> > > with serious subjects, is, after all, a satirical program. So we all held
> > > our breath as Bill stepped onto the tightrope.
> > >
> > > Maher's tone-setting opening comments, which took the place of his usual
> > > monologue, were nothing short of brilliant and -- in light of the media
> > > firestorm that followed -- remarkably prescient.
> > >
> > > "I do not relinquish," he said, "nor should any of you, the right to
> > > criticize, even as we support, our government. This is still a democracy,
> > > and they're still politicians ... Political correctness itself is something
> > > we can no longer afford. Feelings are gonna get hurt so that actual people
> > > won't, and that will be a good thing." At the end of the show, the audience
> > > rose in a standing ovation -- something I had never seen before.
> > >
> > > As well as being the host of the show, Bill is my friend. And, as his
> > > friend, I was really proud of him. Proud of how perfect a note he had struck
> > > between rallying around the flag, showing grief and expressing dissent. How
> > > he had shown that they are not mutually contradictory. And everything that
> > > has happened since has only made me prouder of him -- and more disgusted at
> > > the politically correct cowards who are trying to stifle him.
> > >
> > > We cannot let them succeed, for, as Benjamin Franklin put it, "Whoever would
> > > overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of
> > > speech."
> > >
> > > ---------------
> > > To subscribe or unsubscribe, or if you have any questions or comments,
> > > please contact me at arianna () ariannaonline com
> --
> Denise Caruso
> Founder & Executive Director
> The Hybrid Vigor Institute
> +1 415.543.8113 vox/fax
> http://hybridvigor.org



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