The results ... are remarkable not for the support they display for 1st Amendment rights, which was anticipated, but for the size of the group that would choose to muzzle all kinds of expression, from [Howard] Stern's vulgarities to news reports on the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq to criticism of a wartime government.

Just over half of the respondents in the Tribune poll said the government should impose restrictions on the Internet. Only 38 percent said there should be no restriction. Republicans and people in the Midwest were the strongest backers of restrictions on content, but even a slight majority of Democrats said there should be controls.

Cable television, now something of a national theater of whatever anyone wants to broadcast that has some commercial value, is another target for government regulation, with 55 percent saying the government should restrict sex and violence programming on cable TV.

The strongest support for restriction, however, comes in that very area that is the target of so much attention now, the shock jocks and their dependence on sexual references. A full 64 percent of those questioned said "radio personalities who use implicit or explicit sexual expressions" should simply not be allowed on the air. Only one in three people said they should.

Shifting into politics, the poll also discovered that the nation is split on whether there should have been restrictions on coverage of the Iraqi prisoner scandal. That means one in two people think there should have been some kind of restraint on coverage.

Almost everyone believes people should be allowed to protest the war. About 6 in 10 think it should be OK to allow people to call for the overthrow of the U.S. government.

But almost 4 in 10 say that should not be allowed.

Twenty percent say negative reporting on the war should not be allowed. Twenty percent say critical editorials against a war should not be allowed. About the same number feel that the 1st Amendment itself goes too far. A little over 10 percent say the Patriot Act, which expanded government search and surveillance powers, didn't go far enough.

Get in a room with 10 people. Look around. Statistically speaking, two of those people are enemies of the state, saying "no" to free reporting and unrestrained opinion.

The War on Terror isn't the main issue facing America in this new century.

The War on Ignorance will destroy us faster.

Posted: Tue - July 6, 2004 at 05:53 PM CHATTER -- by Ron Davis Chatter Previous Next Feedback

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