Apr 25 2007
Mike Gallagher is a Fascist
I don’t use that word often, but I couldn’t come up with another one. Maybe it’s a bit harsh, but something he’s doing really burns me. The kooks over at the Westboro Baptist Church were planning on protesting the funerals of the Virginia Tech shooting. It’s a cowardly, lower than low, garbage act that only a complete piece of garbage would take part in, hence the fact that it attracted these kooks like a bright light attracts moths.
But that being said, it is also their constitutional right to do so, and Mike Gallagher is doing nothing more than silencing the free speech rights of others here…
You may recall that when they were planning to protest outside the funerals of the slain Amish children in Pennsylvania, I offered an hour of airtime on my radio show to Westboro Baptist Church in exchange for their written promise to stay out of Pennsylvania and leave those grieving families alone. They accepted my offer and were guests on my show for an hour. When I found out that they were planning to hold protests outside the Virginia Tech victims funerals, I’ve made the decision to offer them more airtime. On Tuesday, April 24, Shirley Phelps-Roper and other members of Westboro Baptist Church will be my in-studio guests for the entire program. They have formally announced that they are cancelling all of their scheduled protests for the Virginia Tech shooting victims funerals as a result of receiving this invitation to be on my show.
Congratulations, Mike. I should also post his weak explanation:
I know that many people disagree with my decision. I have also received many notes and calls of support. Please allow me to state why I’m doing this: I truly feel called, on a spiritual level, to allow my radio show to be a tool that prevents these angry, hateful people the opportunity to hurt grieving families. I fully comprehend the arguments against doing this (”giving in to ‘terrorists’, “allowing them a national platform”, etc.) but my heart is telling me to do something positive here. If my radio show can prevent a circus atmosphere of protests, counter-protests, police protection, and media coverage from taking place in front of churches where grieving families are trying to say good-bye to their loved ones, then I think that’s a good thing. I feel with all of my heart that this is the right thing to do.
No it isn’t. It’s a self-aggrandizing load of crap.
No one is agreeing with what those pieces of trash have to say. Hell, Shirley Phelps Roper left a pretty scathing and incoherent comment on my last post about her proving that her education level is probably one step higher than that of a 7 year old, but even so, I never deleted her comment, and I invite people like her and her slimy family to post here any time they want because I believe that the only way to have an open honest discussion about ideas is to hear all of them. You can argue with them. You can call people names. You can spit at their feet if it makes you feel better.
In the end, however, you don’t protect speech by silencing it.
Over the years, anyone can tell you I’m a free speech absolutist. I believe people have a right to say whatever the hell they want, and you do not have a right to not be offended. I don’t care if people say the most hateful thing you’ve ever heard; that’s the penalty you pay for living in a free country.
I’m sure Gallagher got a lot of happy pats on the back from various people around the country. I’m sure this raised his profile from obscure to semi-obscure. I’m even sure that he probably made a few friends and admirers doing this.
But, when all is said and done, Mike Gallagher has done nothing to promote the ideals of this country; ideals he supposedly believes in above all else. At the top of that list is freedom of expression, and that right isn’t tied to who you are or what you’re saying.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I don’t understand; how is he silencing them if he’s offering them airtime?
Seems to me that he’s offering to convert their speech by exchanging their protesting at the funerals for an hour on his show. (It’s a completely bizarre thing to offer, IMHO, but Westboro will still get a chance to spread their hate…at least it’ll be out of the eye of the families of the victims.)
April 25th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
It’s his intention, anyway… He takes them out of the protest area where they’ll garner the most attention to his show that no one really listens to anyway.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
But that isn’t him taking away their freedom of speech. Just because one of the terms is they can’t protest doesn’t mean this guy is a fascist. They are accepting the terms of their own free will. He doesn’t have to accept to give them air time; and they don’t have to accept his offer. So what if his show is obscure? Its their own fault for accepting to go on an obscure show.
The only way i can see that he would be silencing them is if he had them come on and then didn’t air them. Just because people have the freedom of speech doesn’t mean they have the right to be payed attention to.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I agree with you that his motives probably aren’t pure — self-aggrandizement over anything else, but I’m with Vidiot on this one: he’s giving them an alternative to disrespecting and ruining a young person’s funeral, not taking away their right to speak their minds.
On top of that, they could have refused the offer. He’s not silencing them if they choose to be on his show over protesting at the funeral.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
[...] Truth is, I don’t care what people say on the radio. Short of advocating the violent overthrow of the government, nothing should be taken off the air. Kudos to Mike Gallagher who may not be the kind of fascist I thought he was. [...]