According to the New York Times, Lou Dobbs is leaving CNN supposedly to work on his radio show and not necessarily to move over to FOX News–though Fox would be stupid not to pick him up given their viewer demographic.  A lot of folk have been praying real hard for Lou Dobbs–the official spewer of vile, hateful anti-immigrant garbage at CNN–to get the hell out of dodge (for more on him read my previous post: The Essence of Hypocrisy).  Whether it was through internet organizing campaigns such as Basta Dobbs or through email petitions, clearly somebody got the message at CNN.  All I can say is it’s about damned time!

Let’s be clear, Lou Dobbs has every right to say vile crap as he sees fit.  I cherish my freedom of speech and don’t have a politically correct bone in my body.  That said, speech isn’t just a matter of speaking words.  Although the Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether or not corporations, unions or advocacy groups should be allowed to use unlimited amounts of money in support or opposition of political candidates (e.g. by funding Hillary: The Movie), such contributions being like speech by an actual person, we should still remember that it has long been settled that commercial activity, at least for real people, is a form of speech even if that speech is subject to a few more controls.  Thus, if people want to boycott CNN because they disagree with Dobbs’ exercise of his free speech, then they too have every right to do so by exercising their free speech in calling for the boycott or by the act of not consuming CNN’s programming.  And if CNN feels that its employees are not representing the network in a way that is either profitable or in line with what they believe (note that we are talking about CNN’s speech here, Dobbs is merely an employee), then they have the right to do that too–regardless of what the Supremes finally decide about corporate personhood and speech in the Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (FEC) case.

While I disagree with some of my friends that think hate speech ought to be banned per se, I also disagree with my other friends who think that the boycott against Dobbs qua CNN is a movement against free speech.

In honor of the First Amendment, let me exercise my freedom of speech by saying “Good riddance, you mean bastard!”