Saturday, October 24, 2009

Why is Glenn Beck Pro-Censorship?

This has been bothering me for a while now. Glenn Beck proclaims loudly and vehemently on his show (and through his lawyers in WIPO complaints) that he is vehemently pro-free speech and loves the first amendment. His actions, however, give lie to the claim.

First, filing a UDRP complaint with the WIPO is not a pro-free speech action. If he succeeds, Beck will be establishing the precedent that criticism sites violate copyright- potentially silencing thousands of websites which criticize corporations and individuals for perceived unethical and illegal practices. Despite the claims in his filings that he supports the First Amendment, merely filing the complaint is an anti-first amendment action.

Second, his opposition to Net Neutrality is a decidedly anti-free speech position. Neutrality simply assures that the internet will continue to operate as it always has. Opposing it means that Time Warner could block access to timewarnersucks.com, or that Fox or Mercury Radio Arts (Beck's media company) could pay ISPs to block access to GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com. Again, this position is clearly not one of someone who respects the First Amendment.

The conclusion that must be drawn from Glenn Beck's actions is that he is actually pro-censorship. As to why- I can only speculate, but if I were to guess, I'd say that Glenn doesn't want anybody to be able to expose his smarmy and disingenuous tactics.

PS- If I'm wrong, Glenn, please let me know. Email and telephone are fine for contacting me, but I would not recommend sending a carrier pigeon, as my cat would probably eat it.

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