(Untitled)

[jr0124]

XM radio suspended Opie and Anthony on Tuesday afternoon in order to "teach them a lesson". Please show up to support the boys or simply to support free speech.

Fans and supporters are gathering at CBS studios on 57th Street between 5th & 6th in New York City Thursday and Friday morning from 6am-9am.

Alos, please consider joining People Against

Comments

[elmo_iscariot]

Broken link->broken post. ;)

You have an extra double-quote in your link between "http://" and "www".

[jr0124]

Thanks for the note. Fixed now.

[jr0124]

Opie and Anthony themselves didn't say anything. There was a homeless man on their show who said, "Condoleeza Rice? I wanna fuck 'dat bitch to death..." The medai is portraying that as graphic descriptions of rape.

[jr0124]

Exactly the point of www.peopleagainstcensorship.com - XM is caving to special interest groups. I've sent email to several XM sponsors indicating my displeasure and intention to never use their products. So have a slew of other O&A fans. Maybe the sponsors can put some pressure on XM in a way that thousands of dollars of lost subscriptions can't.

Not only is XM losing ongoing revenue, they're having to give refunds for prepaid service time. One guy had a refund of over $600. Another said he cancelled 27 units for himself and his entire company.

[elmo_iscariot]

think about their right to create being limited by special interest groups and corporate entities.

If I understand the situation correctly, there's no censorship going on here and nobody's "limiting their right to create". It's simply a matter of a broadcast company deciding what it does and doesn't want to broadcast on its privately-owned service. If O&A want absolute freedom of content, they can set up a webcast tomorrow. If they want the exposure and money that come from collaborating with megacorporations, they need to accept the compromises that come with collaboration.

If you want to let XM know that they're not offering you the product you want, mazel tov. If you couch the argument in the rhetoric of oppressed artists being smacked down by the man, you're more likely to be written off by the company as impossible-to-please extremists.

[jr0124]

When I cancelled my XM subscription I simply said that I was cancelling because O&A are no longer on the air. I said nothing about censoring artists.

You're right to an extent. XM has decided what it does and doesn't want on its service. That decision seems to be based in the idea that small special interest groups will complain. If the descriptions of rough sex with Condie Rice are the most offensive thing O&A have broadcast in the last 3 years, I'm a monkey's uncle. But because some small group raised a hue and cry, O&A are now suspended. If that's not corporate censorship, what is?

[elmo_iscariot]

If that's not corporate censorship, what is?

A sign that O&A should reevaluate who they do business with?

I don't honestly give a damn about "corporate censorship". If I publish a radio show, or a newspaper, or a newsletter, I decide what goes in it. If I choose not to publish fanatic right-wing hatemongering, that's my prerogative. Choosing whose voice I amplify is no more immoral than you deciding which side of a protest rally you'll lent your megaphone to. It meets the strict definition of "censorship" ("The act, process, or practice of [examining and expurgating]"--AHD), but calling it that is a misuse of a loaded term. China's restrictions of Internet content, Cuba's near-banning of the Internet, and South Korea's... Well, everything... Those are examples of censorship. An individual, company, or corporation deciding that it doesn't want to publish material that offends a vocal group of people? Big deal. O&A can go elsewhere, and you can go elsewhere

[andreananda]

I'll bet O&A thought their days of getting suspended had ended in high school! LOL.
XM made a bid mistake. They have sabotaged listener trust by cowtowing to the special interest groups. I am sure Sirius is gaining from XM's loss.

[monack]

Why is the protest at CBS when XM suspended them?

[jr0124]

technically, it's not being billed as a protest. It's a demonstration to show our support for O&A. There's no on at the XM studios now.

Also, higher-ups in PAC asked those-who-might-know where the most effective rally might be held. They were told CBS. Also, CBS is where the press is because O&A are broadcasting from there.