20 December 2013

Of Ducks And Men

A&E suspending Phil Robertson may have been a bad move financially, time will tell, but I won't shed any tears for Phil. The Robertsons did not make their money on Duck Dynasty, and long after the show is but an interesting footnote in Duck Commander's company history the ducks will still be flocking to their calls.

With that being said, A&E's decision is NOT censorship, any more than was the Dixie Chick's label dropping them, any more than Alec Baldwin losing his show, any more than GEICO dropping the Gunny, or any company's decision to not continue a professional relationship with any of their spokesmen. A&E didn't tell Phil Robertson to shut up, they merely said "you can't say that on our time."

For it to be true censorship...you need a government to use the power of the purse to audit you, the power of regulation to harass you, and the power of the boot to crush you. No matter what poncy Brit twit Piers Morgan says, that is what the First Amendment is all about.

Incidentally, the Second Amendment is all about the people telling the government "you can't do that on our time."

Try to keep that in mind.

5 comments:

MSgt B said...

Well put.

Anonymous said...

Amen!, Larry...

gfa

Robert Fowler said...

" A&E didn't tell Phil Robertson to shut up, they merely said "you can't say that on our time."

But was he on their time? He gave a interview to a magazine, so who's time was he on?

I saw this morning that Wally-Worlds all over the country have run out of DD stuff. It's possible that A&E stepped on their own crank.

RabidAlien said...

Yep.

Larry said...

Robert, he is a very visible component of the A&E world and as such he is always on "their time" as long as that relationship exists (just like the Gunny was "on GEICO's time" when he made his statements at a completely unconnected event).

The point I was trying to make, though, is it's not censorship until the government gets involved.