His comments compared gay people directly with drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, and those that sleep with animals. I'm glad they weren't offensive...
He was calling sin, sin. Nothing more.
And he does have free speech, and free speech is not being eroded. He had no restrictions on his ability to get up and say what he did - and that's good. However, now he has to bear the consequences of his speech - which is that others (who disagree) will make their disagreement known. This is the freaking marketplace of ideas - and his ideas about homosexuality are losing.
No, they're not. Even some of the people in the gay community have come out to support this man because he holds firm to his beliefs. They can respect that he disagrees with their lifestyle.
This is the very reason why laws restricting speech are usually castigated - defenders of free speech point out that the proper response to idiotic speech is others getting up and expressing the idea that the original speaker was wrong. And that is exactly what A&E has done. It just so happens that their ability to express themselves is far greater than Mr. Robertson's.
No, it isn't. Phil has a bigger audience than A&E. It is because of Phil and his family that A&E has seen way more success lately.
And this isn't A&E simply saying "we think he's wrong". It's A&E saying "our opinion and viewpoints matter more than yours do" when that shouldn't be the case at all. As I said, I would have more respect for the network if they came out and said "we respect that he has his viewpoints, but they don't agree with ours." and left it at that. GLAAD should be satisfied with that, too, instead of trying to shut up everyone who disagrees with them.
Speech has consequences precisely because A&E - and other people - have freedom expression too. And part of that can be withdrawing the privilege of appearing on their national platform. Why do you want to restrict A&E's ability to express themselves! You're eroding freedom of expression! See how insipid that kind of argument is unless it really IS the government eroding expression rights? The only way it could be seen as eroding freedom of expression is if the government had a law that criminalized his comments and banned them from being said.
I'm a firm believer in the consequences of free speech, so you're rather barking up the wrong tree there.
A&E is welcome express themselves as well. Suspending a man from their reality show because they disagree with his viewpoints isn't an expression of free speech, it's censorship. Then again, A&E hasn't been the most tolerant with this family to begin with, so it's not really a surprise.
And I don't think we're too far away from government criminalizing comments like Phil's, either. It's already started with new hate crime laws.
