“Dissent, ‘a treasured American virtue’ as one pompous anchorman aptly put it recently, is more than a privilege and a right; it’s a responsibility. By abdicating our responsibility to voice opposition, we invite the erosion of the very value system we claim to be protecting.”

- Brooke Shelby Biggs, contributing editor of MotherJones.com

Enough’s enough. For the last two months, I have stood by and watched the First Amendment get treated like the pasty vulnerable kid on the jungle gym. Since that horrible day on 9/11, I’ve seen these censorship bullies take this kid’s lunch money every day without even a return whimper. The one getting picked on the most is Bill Maher, stand-up comedian and host of the late night talk show, “Politically Incorrect.”

Sept. 17 was a day of reckoning for Mr. Maher. His comments that evening suggested that the terrorist’s actions were not cowardly and that our nation lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away was “cowardly” (referring to a strike by the Clinton administration in response to bin Laden’s alleged bombing of American embassies in Africa). That night I saw how dangerous blind faith could be.

I had turned on ABC out of need of sleep, the fuzzy glow of the TV able to seduce slumber faster than warm milk. “Politically Incorrect” had been off the air for six days due to the exhausting 24-hour coverage of the bombings. Bill Maher was ready. I had never seen the man look so angry and disturbed. His humor had been swept under the carnage and rubble of the two-bombed sites.

The format of the show is like a town meeting. Four guests from different backgrounds, politically and morally, sit and discuss the topic of the night (although one was vacant in honor of conservative commentator Barbara Olson, a frequent guest who died aboard the plane that hit the Pentagon). The obvious topic that evening surrounded World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon

One of the guests on the show was Dinesh D’Souza, an author and former policy analyst during the Reagan administration.

“Bill, there’s another piece of political correctness I want to mention,” D’Souza said at one point. “And, although I think Bush has been doing a great job, one of the themes we hear constantly is that the people who did this are cowards.”

Maher replied, “Not true.”

D’Souza said: “Not true. Look at what they did. First of all, you have a whole bunch of guys who are willing to give their life. None of them backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete.”

Maher: “Exactly.”

D’Souza: “These are warriors. And we have to realize that the principles of our way of life are in conflict with people in the world. And so, I mean, I’m all for understanding the sociological causes of this, but we should not blame the victim. Americans shouldn’t blame themselves because other people want to bomb them.”

Maher: “But also, we should — we have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly. You’re right."

The next day, Bill Maher’s name morphed into mud.

Two shock-jock radio hosts in Texas endlessly ran the snippet (“We have been the cowards!”) and whipped their audience into a frenzy. Within a few hours, the Maher quote was playing on radio talk shows nationwide, and consumers besieged “Politically Incorrect” commercial sponsors with demands for a boycott. Sears and Federal Express pulled their sponsorships, ABC’s affiliate in Washington, D.C. cancelled the show, and several Midwest stations suspended his show indefinitely.

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, denounced Mr. Maher, saying of news organizations and all Americans that in times like these “people have to watch what they say and watch what they do.”

People have to watch what they say? Excuse me, Mr. Fleischer, but I think I just heard chuckling from George Orwell’s grave.

When the White House later released the official transcript of Mr. Fleischer’s briefing, the portion of his comments urging people to “watch what they say” was mysteriously not included. I guess the White House has the right to censor itself.

Our own WLOS-TV agreed that folks need to watch what they say and they subsequently removed “Politically Incorrect” from its late-night slot. In a letter to the Mountain Xpress — a weekly newspaper in Asheville — Sally Harvey wrote that she called WLOS asking why Mr. Maher had been permanently gagged.

Their response was, “He crossed the line.”

“The only purpose of the show is to cross the line,” Harvey wrote. “People who don’t want those lines crossed are asleep or watching the shopping network at that hour.”

However, the holes in the argument to suspend Maher’s show were more plentiful than a moth-ridden quilt. Voices started to sprout up in the strangest of places.

President George Bush even made past comments about Clinton’s decision to send an errant missile. As reported by Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, he told a group of U.S. senators, “When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.”

And no, it wasn’t just the liberals who ran to Maher’s side. Rush Limbaugh has come to Maher’s defense, and conservative author and KRLA syndicated radio talk-show host Dennis Prager said “I disagree with almost everything Bill says, but if he loses sponsors for those comments, then those of us with unusual views will all be burned — the left, the middle and the right. He said nothing to deserve losing sponsorship.”

When Maher later had to “half-recant” his words, he made it a strong point to ensure that the world knew that he was not directing his darts at the military. His marks were directed at past political actions involving the use of armed forces. In past episodes, Maher has been a supporter of the military and his apology reflected this — “In no way was I ever intending, because I never think this way, to say that the men and women who defend our nation in uniform are anything but courageous and valiant, and I apologize.”

Like Maher, I was appalled and then heavily depressed by what transpired on 9/11. I was angry at what the terrorists did, killing almost 5,000 innocent people with four kamikaze airplanes. My heart hit the cosmos as I watched those brave firemen, a once embattled mayor, and policemen try to restore a semblance of sanity to a hellish situation. But most of all, I had to keep some of my grief stored away for fear of backlash. Our foreign policy fingers have been in way too many pies and we have alienated and bullied enough countries (i.e Latin American, the Middle East, South America) to warrant a catastrophic backlash. I do not agree with what happened, but I can see why it happened. This set on my heart more than anything, but at the time I was afraid to speak up.

I still write this in fear because I know some will think I’m unpatriotic. Quite the opposite. This country has allowed me to speak my mind on every dissenting issue. This country has provided me with a life that is unobtainable to a large majority of the world. The flag represents life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It does not represent, ‘Hey, you shmuck. You can’t say that about our country. If you do that again, you won’t be able to speak anymore.” Rallying around the flag also means being able to use dissent.

“I do not relinquish,” Maher said in the aftermath, “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.”

I understand that certain liberties are taken during a time of crisis, but our freedom of speech should never be one of them. Our country was etched in this desire to let tongues flap — for better, worse, or reactionary. You may not like Bill Maher, but silencing him is far scarier than his half-hour rant. Turning off the TV is one thing, but turning off a human being is like putting our flag in the attic.

(Please email your support for ABC's “Politically Incorrect” to netaudr@abc.com or visit www.petitiononline.com/promaher/petition.html or www.millionflagmarch.com and sign the petition. And if you want to urge FedEx and Sears to return to their sponsorships, please call Sears at 1.800.549.4505 or FedEx at 1.800.463.3339. Emails can be sent through their websites at www.fedex.com and www.sears.com. Locally, you can call WLOS at 828.684.1340 and ask for Maher’s show to return.)

(Hunter Pope can be reached at w.h.pope@worldnet.att.net)

 

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