Boortz thinks Opie and Anthony should be fired....discuss

[evnlee]

http://townhall.com/columnists/colu...lBoortz&dt=05/10/2007&page=full&comments=true

"... : The free speech guarantees of the First Amendment only apply to actions by government, not by private entities. The government cannot use its exclusive franchise on the right to use force in order to prevent you from speaking our mind ... but your employer damn sure can. Not by force, mind you, but by job action.

Free speech does not mean that you have the right to say anything you damned well please on any radio station or any private satellite cannel. Whoever owns and controls that station and/or satellite has every right in the world to control content. Opie and Anthony are content. XM ought to show some responsibility ... now ... today.

Get rid of them.

Exercise some responsible control."

 

[DashRiprock]

I could not disagree more.

Boortz of all people should support O&A. Those to want to censor others are fools.

 

[hootmon]

The marketplace decides. If no one listens, then they will be gone. Personally, I think it is in incredibly poor taste to joke about raping someone, but these guys aren't my cup of tea anyways. If that is what the listeners want, they are giving it to them.

 

[DashRiprock]

The marketplace decides. If no one listens, then they will be gone. Personally, I think it is in incredibly poor taste to joke about raping someone, but these guys aren't my cup of tea anyways. If that is what the listeners want, they are giving it to them.

Right on target hootmon.

Poor taste? Absolutely, without a doubt. Did I think it was funny? No I didn't, BUT I think people should be allowed to say pretty much anything they want even if I think it’s in poor taste and not funny. Maybe Boortz wants to deflect attention from his recent "insensitive" remarks. What a hypocrite...

 

[DaleGriffin]

Let me ask this - Does XM have a responsibility to protect it's investors from the fallout of this? Is the incredibly poor judgement used in creating this bit justify a firing?

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

I agree with Neal Boortz! He is dead on. Anyone anybody attempts satire; they should be thrown off the air forever and sent to a work farm. How dare Opie and Anthony have a character on the air who belittles the Secretary of the State? For shame! I know Neal would never do anything like that. He would never call Hillary Clinton a lesbian if it weren't true. Nor would he say Nancy Pelosi is a Princess if she didn't go to state functions in a tiara. Neal should stick to his true calling - arming all college co-eds with firearms to prevent psychotic rages by mentally unbalanced students.

If there were an award for d-bag of Atlanta, it should be awarded in Neal Boortz in perpetuity

 

[SalesWeasel]

I'm a liberal but even I can see that if these guys were conservatives, and they said "Hillary Clinton" instead of Condi, there'd be a line 10 miles long of people waiting to lynch them. Not to worry, though; it was on XM so about 50 people heard it live.

 

[SalesWeasel]

I agree with Neal Boortz! He is dead on. Anyone anybody attempts satire; they should be thrown off the air forever and sent to a work farm. How dare Opie and Anthony have a character on the air who belittles the Secretary of the State? For shame! I know Neal would never do anything like that. He would never call Hillary Clinton a lesbian if it weren't true. Nor would he say Nancy Pelosi is a Princess if she didn't go to state functions in a tiara. Neal should stick to his true calling - arming all college co-eds with firearms to prevent psychotic rages by mentally unbalanced students.

If there were an award for d-bag of Atlanta, it should be awarded in Neal Boortz in perpetuity

Ditto

 

[knowsnews1]

The hypocrisy is incredible. Not from Neal, because he's expected to generate discussion. But from corporate management.

Fire Opie and Anthony? For what? Doing what they were hired to do? They pulled a stunt some years back that led to a couple having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral, and calling the show during it. They were fired by their local station, and XM picked them up for satellite. So why is XM, or anybody, shocked or outraged by this. THIS IS WHAT THEY DO.

Now, as for Don Imus. He should have been fired. After all, it's not like he had been insulted people of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds for 35 years, right? His comments had to be a shock to CBS and MSNBC, since he'd never done it before.

To quote Captain Renault, "I'm shocked to find that gambling is going on in here." Croupier "Your winnings, Sir."

 

[middlega]

Should the employer have the option to fire them, or anybody else? AFAIC most absolutely yes.

Should they fire O&A? Absolutely, AFAIC they're a waste of both airtime & oxygen and the world would be a tiny fractional bit better off without them on air anywhere.

Should they fire them because of this particular incident? Not specifically IMO. As someone pointed out, they were just doing what they were hired to do. If it were to correct the mistake of putting them on in the first place, I'd lean toward yes. But if it's simply because they don't have the nerve to take a little heat, the first to go should be whoever made the decision to hire them. It's not as though these guys aren't a known commodity.

 

[DToTheJ]

Who knows how this will affect XM... I want to know how this will affect Q100. ;D (Hey, somebody had to say it.)

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Neal can say whatever he wants. He's welcome to. Opie and Anthony should not be fired. They have a dedicated following on a private radio service in which people pay to hear. This is not the public airwaves. I AM an XM subscriber, and I heard the entire show that day. They brought in a homeless guy who just started rambling on about stuff. The way this was taken out of context made this sound like he was a show character who talks about stuff like this all the time. That said, it was no worse than other stuff they've said on their show, but since Imus, people like Jaques Steinberg have been purposefully combing the radio shows just to get people in trouble. No one really cares about decency or tastelessness. They just like sticking their noses into other peoples' business because they get off on seeing others get fired.

This would be different if it were a terrestrial radio station which is obligated to serve the local public, but this is a case where all these people trying to get the show in trouble need to be told to shut up because they're not the customers. We are.

Let me ask this - Does XM have a responsibility to protect it's investors from the fallout of this? Is the incredibly poor judgement used in creating this bit justify a firing?

I don't see how this could cause fallout of any sort. In fact the stock is up today. If anything is going to stop the merger, it's the FTC, not some dopey shock jocks. I could actually say that firing them would create MORE fallout. XM's program director has stated how many people listen to the show. If they're gone, who knows how many will drop their subs. They're only adding a couple hundred thousand a quarter. XM won't want to put "First ever net subscriber loss" in their 2Q07 reports. Shareholders would be pissed. Stock drops further.



I bet Q100 will go up.

 

[evnlee]

Neal can say whatever he wants. He's welcome to. Opie and Anthony should not be fired. They have a dedicated following on a private radio service in which people pay to hear. This is not the public airwaves. I AM an XM subscriber, and I heard the entire show that day. They brought in a homeless guy who just started rambling on about stuff. The way this was taken out of context made this sound like he was a show character who talks about stuff like this all the time. That said, it was no worse than other stuff they've said on their show, but since Imus, people like Jaques Steinberg have been purposefully combing the radio shows just to get people in trouble. No one really cares about decency or tastelessness. They just like sticking their noses into other peoples' business because they get off on seeing others get fired.

This would be different if it were a terrestrial radio station which is obligated to serve the local public, but this is a case where all these people trying to get the show in trouble need to be told to shut up because they're not the customers. We are.

Let me ask this - Does XM have a responsibility to protect it's investors from the fallout of this? Is the incredibly poor judgement used in creating this bit justify a firing?

I don't see how this could cause fallout of any sort. In fact the stock is up today. If anything is going to stop the merger, it's the FTC, not some dopey shock jocks. I could actually say that firing them would create MORE fallout. XM's program director has stated how many people listen to the show. If they're gone, who knows how many will drop their subs. They're only adding a couple hundred thousand a quarter. XM won't want to put "First ever net subscriber loss" in their 2Q07 reports. Shareholders would be pissed. Stock drops further.



I bet Q100 will go up.

did they do the bit on thier terrestrial side, or on the XM side?

 

[evnlee]

Re: Opie and Anthony prove to be big wussies

" I will never apologise !" screams OnA after the Imus fiasco.

Opie and Anthony, whose full names are Anthony Cumia and Greg "Opie" Hughes, apologized to listeners on Friday's show.

"We apologize to the public officials for comments that we made on our XM show on May 9th. We take very seriously the responsibility that comes with our creative freedom and regret any offense that this segment has caused," they said.


I thought cowering to Whoopi was bad, but this is just awful.

put a fork in 'em. The virus is done, and the antidote is they are too afraid of political correctness.

just sad.

 

[mrslate]

Personally, I thought the bit sucked. It wasn't funny, and was over-the-line offensive.

I also found (and continue to find) Boortz's comments belittling the Virginia Tech students being cowards, to be just as offensive.

Neither should be fired, unless their words result in losses for their company's.

I lost a lot of respect for Boortz' after his VT comments. Very unsettling to hear.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

did they do the bit on thier terrestrial side, or on the XM side?

XM side.

 

[DashRiprock]

Personally, I thought the bit sucked. It wasn't funny, and was over-the-line offensive.

I also found (and continue to find) Boortz's comments belittling the Virginia Tech students being cowards, to be just as offensive.

Neither should be fired, unless their words result in losses for their company's.

I lost a lot of respect for Boortz' after his VT comments. Very unsettling to hear.

Good post mrslate. I'm even more disappointed with his O&A comments. I thought Libertarians supported freedom of speech even if they disagree with it.

 

[ClarkKent]

I didn't hear Boortz's show today but in the "Nuze" it looks like he's really aiming more at some bill in Congress that would apparently re-instate the "Fairness Doctrine" of old. No, I know Opie and Anthony are on XM, but you do have to wonder how long it is before the FCC gets their claws on that, too. But then, they don't do much with cable, so it may be a moot point.

I think this might be a topic better discussed on FCC Policy or even Off The Air. It's not really an Atlanta issue, even though it involves the Talkmaster.

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

In case you didn't hear O&A were suspended today by XM.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:
"Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter," Washington-based XM said in a statement. "The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."
###
Though I can't prove it, Jerry Falwell was said to be a huge O&A fan and was listening when the comments were made.

 

[BingCrackle]

Senility is in its early stages concerning Boortz. I think we should try to be understanding of Neil and his outlandish statements. The guy is almost 70. This is to be expected.