Not really, but it was odd that the same man who has in the past had no problem championing campaign finance reform laws that would clearly be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court was one of the few politicians who spoke up last week to suggest taking a bit more time and discussion before going after the entertainment industry.
On the other hand, McCain’s comments illustrate the absurdity of the whole situation. McCain actually told ABC’s This Week,
Before we embark on censorship we’d better make very sure where this leads. … Frankly I don’t know the answer. I’m reluctant right now to say I’m ready to pass some kind of law that imposes some sort of censorship on the industry.
He’s reluctant(!) to impose censorship? Oh thank goodness — that makes me feel so much better. Apparently the big political choice Americans have these days is between politicians who are reluctant to impose censorship and those who are ready to go ahead and impose censorship right away. What part of the First Amendment don’t these yahoos understand?
It’s a sign of how little respect their is for the principle of free speech today that the main debate between the Republicans and Democrats has devolved to a contest over who is willing to impose the most censorship. Gore’s campaign chairman WIlliam Daley appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation to say Gore wants to encourage the industry to self-regulate with the clear implication that if they don’t, then government will step in. George W. Bush’s response to this government strong-arming is that it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
To be fair, Lynne Cheney did note that nobody has the power to impose the sort of regulation that Gore (or Bush) was proposing, but she completely fails to understand the effect this sort of rhetoric has in undermining support for the First Amendment. It is because of relentless attacks like this that you see close to half of people in some polls saying newspapers should have limitations placed on their ability to criticize public officials.
Cheney also noted the hypocrisy of Gore and Lieberman hanging out with Hollywood’s power brokers and then calling for censorship of Hollywood (whereas the Bush position is apparently that he wants to censor them and he really can’t stand them). The part that I still don’t get is that Hollywood has lined up behind Gore and even Nader — both candidates who are pretty clear that they would regulate speech as a commercial product which could be applied to everything from movies to newspapers to this web site. Even Bush isn’t willing to go that far to my knowledge.
Source:
McCain Leery of proposal to sanction entertainment industry. The Associated Press, September 17, 2000.