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[branford]

230. You do realize the difference between your actions and the OP?

You asked your bank to change the channel, and they complied. Hooray, for civil discourse! That appears to be far more than the OP even attempted. Your parents raised you with manners. Don't you believe that they OP should have acted as you did?

Do you believe that you had a RIGHT for Fox not to be on the bank's television? If the bank had refused to change the channel, do you believe you had a right not to be offended? Doesn't the bank have a right to determine what they watch on their own television on their property? If you do not agree with the bank's choice of programming, couldn't you simply take your business elsewhere?

Everyone loves the First Amendment and claims to be against censorship, at least until faced with something they find very offensive. Only then do we invent exceptions to protect our delicate sensibilities. We don't need the First Amendment to protect speech that we agree with. Simply ask the ACLU about Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois.

I'm confident and secure enough in my beliefs that some morons on Fox are just noise to be ignored. Maybe it's just the trial lawyer in me, or that I live and work in a place as loud and diverse as Manhattan, but if I acted, even occasionally, like the OP when something seriously offended me, I would find myself in prison or an asylum.

Look, I completely agree with your opinion about Fox. However, our opinion about Fox is not at all the point. I object to substituting my judgment over someone else, particularly about something so fundamental as what to watch or listen to. I do not get to determine what is "best" for you or anyone else. That appears to be the conduct and beliefs that many conservatives adhere to, and I thought that we at DU categorically reject.

If you claim to object to censorship and value free speech, but make an exception for Fox or anything else just because you disagree of find it offensive, your are a hypocrite or do not fully comprehend the values you claim to advocate.

When some Republican claims they want to enact some awful legislation that would impeded liberal views or actions, such as the recent laws concerning abortion clinics, don't act surprised when they too claim is just a "public service."

If standing-up for free speech rights, even those with which I completely disagree or reject, makes me a troll, I will wear such a badge proudly, as I imagine would most of my ACLU brethren.