To: Mr. Kevin P. Reilly, Jr.
Chairman & CEO
Lamar Advertising Co.
5551 Corporate Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Dear Mr. O'Reilly: I want to thank you for upholding fine Republican values by refusing to run billboard ads commissioned by the Democratic National Committee. That took balls. I've heard of folks censoring third party political ads, but this is the first time I heard of someone turning down an ad by a national political party, and you're going to come under a lot of fire for that.
Now, there's some folks who say that censorship of political speech is un-American, anti-freedom, and un-democratic, and that folks who engage in censorship are objectively pro-terrorist enemies of freedom and little different from the Commies we fought the Cold War with, i.e., just a bunch of goons and thugs out to loot the wealth of nations for the benefit of a Party elite. Well, they're right, of course. But remember, if we don't destroy freedom here at home before the terrorists do, the terrorists have won!
Once again, I thank you for upholding fine Republican values of censorship and suppression of political speech. You are truly an exempler of modern American values!
Sarcastically yours,
Badtux the Snarky Penguin
An aside for non-Louisianians: Lamar regularly refuses to run billboard ads commissioned by folks like the Sierra Club, Earth Now!, etc., while at the same time accepting tobacco and liquor advertising. This is, however, the first time I've heard of them turning down advertising from a national political party.... Their number is (225) 926-1000. Another option is faxing your message (225) 926-1005. Please do so responsibly, we don't want them complaining that they're being persecuted by left-wing kooks.
Censorship is ok as long as it is the Republicans doing it.
ReplyDelete;-)
Yes, but it could be worse... imagine them bombing Blogger or your bedroom with a web server (after they are done with AlJazeera !).
ReplyDeleteMore: http://imran.com/media/blog/2005/12/who-wants-to-encourage-censorship.html
Imran
http://imran.com
Why bother bombing Blogger, when you can just intimidate the company into quietly cooperating with you? I have no illusions that Google is not sharing my info with whoever from the Fed's Office of Whatever comes asking. Making a fuss would be bad for the investors, after all, since the SEC could make Google's life miseraeble...
ReplyDeleteAl Jazeera is independent, and can't be bought off (unlike Google).
As for those of us shouting in the wilderness, no one really listens, so why bomb us?