Free Thinking

The freedom of speech has never guaranteed anyone the right to be heard.  Sometimes what is heard does not appeal to everyone.  Not all commentaries, jokes or skits are for everyone; nor will everyone view the same material in the same light.  Certain media outlets take great pride in preaching about those things to which Americans are allowed to acknowledge.  This same shepherding tactic is used in local government.

Two weeks ago, on Last Comic Standing, a reality television show on NBC, Richard Belzer gave a lecture to a contestant from Alabama about his skit.  The contestant's skit was based on a dogfight between an American fighter pilot and a Japanese fighter pilot.  Rather than simply saying that the material was not too funny, he referred to the contestants humor as “post World War II, late-40's humor” that “had no place in 2008” because it had “ethnic references.”  Then minutes later, he was laughing at a lady from Chicago, of Korean, descent poking fun at her family using the exact same ethnic humor that he chided the other contestant for using.  He even took a moment to praise her and tell her it's okay for ethnic humor in the realm of individual ethnic groups or for ethnicities to make fun of themselves.  

Now the “serious” media has a new controversy over Barrack Hussein Obama and the cover of The New Yorker magazine.  This cover shows Barrack in Muslim apparel giving a fist-bump to his wife, Michelle.  Michelle has been given a huge afro and an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder.  They appear to be in the Oval Office with a picture of Osama Bin Laden over a fire place which has an American flag burning in it. 

Various outlets are telling Americans that we should not find humor in this.  The Obama camp had just weathered an internet campaign that pointed out Obama's Muslim background so they are up in arms about this.  The editors at the magazine even had to explain that the art is a satirical reflection of the fear-mongering already being perpetrated against the Obama's.  This is how coastal media elitists think that conservatives view the Obamas.

However, the media outlets were silent when Condoleeza Rice was portrayed in editorial cartoons as a slave or Aunt Jemima.  No one was up in arms when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was called Uncle Tom Justice from the title of a 2001 Time Magazine article by Jack E White.  No one told Americans what to think about these public jabs as they were being fleshed out.