"It’s Just Entertainment."

In the recent issue of Forbes Magazine, Glenn Beck said, "I could give a flying crap about the political process. We’re an entertainment company."

If you haven't done it yet, add Glenn "I could give a flying crap about the political process" Beck to the list of "buffoons of entertainment" such as Rush “I say what I say for the ratings” Limbaugh and Michael “Stark Raving Mad Dog" Savage to name a few. If you continue to think that these individuals were ever speaking out against tyranny, racism, and bigotry while uniting America--I implore you to re-evaluate your support.

When individuals use the airwaves to promote vitriol and "factless" ideology, we should switch channels post haste.

Many Americans believe that we are entitled to free speech, i.e. say whatever we want without facts--but freedom of speech is not free, pure and simple. It is to be used with intelligence and with the utmost rigor of truth. We are entitled to our opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts.

President John Adams was vilified for 200 years because he implemented the Alien Sedition Act making it a crime to criticize elected officials without facts. Censorship isn’t an option in the great Republic. I would be treading on dangerous grounds by asking for censorship. Some of us are all too familiar with the history that has shown the problem with censorship in which people that promoted peace and tolerance were censored, and those that spewed fear and hate were given free reign.

Conversely, we must hold individuals responsible when they use television, radio, and newspapers to spread deception, chaos and anarchy that only divide America. Whether it’s Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, the N.Y. Times, Fox News, Michael Savage or elected officials at every level, "We the People" will hold them all accountable when they cross the line from journalistic integrity into "journalistic deception and entertainment."



Anthony P. Johnson