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The Celebs Don't Get It
05/30/2003

I'm worried about the First Amendment. I can't pick up a newspaper without reading that someone has been vilified for expressing his or her opinion -- the actor Tim Robbins, Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, and Rhode Island's poet laureate, Tom Chandler -- to name a few.

So wrote Amory Weld, citizen of the town over from me, to the Providence Journal. I would note, to Amory, that none of the listed notables have been prevented from stating their opinions. I would explain, to Amory, that the "vilifiers" have every right to respond to those who "vilify" people, nations, and actions that they support. I would do these things if I thought Amory would be open to listening.

As Joel Engle explains, even those stars who lose jobs don't get it: they make those fortunes because the public likes them, and the public is under no obligation to maintain that disposition. For example, the first time I saw Danny Glover among green and yellow illustrations to promote MCI, that company was associated, in the vague realm of general impressions, with a disagreeable reaction in my mind. In a field of business competition in which a particular customer's general impressions are all-important, a company cannot afford to underwrite the free political speech of its spokespeople.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 05:23 PM EST