NOW that’s how you counter something you consider to be hate speech.

With more speech. …[N]o fewer than three groups have bought new subway ads to counter the “defeat jihad” notices bought by blogger Pamela Geller. Which is good news for free speech. Not to mention the MTA — which can sure use the dough.

Ads paid for by United Methodist Women declaring that “Hate speech is not civilised” went up this week in the same subway stations as the anti-jihad ones. Others have been purchased by Rabbis for Human Rights and the Christian group Sojourners. All make their points respectfully but forcefully — and without obliterating anyone else’s ads. …

Not everyone agrees that [Geller’s] ads actually constituted what’s been popularly designated these days as hate speech. But some did — and suggested that hate speech of any kind needs to be forcefully suppressed. Most others, we suspect, appreciate the First Amendment and its guarantees even for unpopular speech.—(Oct 6)

Big Bird
KILL Big Bird?
WHY … not?
… Romney’s not out to drive Big Bird off the air. He just doesn’t think that he rates a Washington subsidy — and he’s not alone. …PBS is now home to numerous lucrative franchises — with ‘Sesame Street’ the most successful, having earned $211m in merchandising sales from 2003 to 2006. Indeed, Sesame Workshop’s total assets at the end of last year stood at more than $411m…

Now, when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was set up, there was little in the way of educational TV; indeed, all broadcast options were limited. That’s hardly true in the Information Age…. PBS contends that Romney “does not understand the value that the American people place on public broadcasting.” Actually, he does — which is why he figures they’ll voluntarily support it through charitable donations … Big Bird, in short, is doing just fine. But in an era of a $16 trillion-plus national debt,
he can pay his own way. —(Oct 6)