ESPN drops Hank Williams Jr

[GreyDay]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

As sympathetic as I am with wanting to smack the guy. We should refrain from threatening the careers of people who voice unpopular or vile opionions.
It's a matter of free speech and the tables can be easily turned on people who say much less controversial things.

It's not free speech when you're 'on the job' and it can be construed as being condoned by your employer. Networks have to toe the vanilla line.

So while he can say what he feels, his employer can take whatever actions they deem appropriate.

[racehorse]

That's exactly right--when you work for a corporation, your speech is not completely free. People have posted things on the internet that have gotten them fired. Why should HW Jr be any different?

[skids929]

The whole free speech argument is thrown around too loosely these days..The main purpose of not censoring speech as the First Amendment defines it was to protect speech from being abridged through congressional action..Speech is still very much limited in the sense you can't defame, cause a fight, incite riots, harass, try to overthrow Govt etc. with it.

What HWJ said doesn't qualify as any of the above..One can speak freely without fear of reprisal from the Govt, but there can also be consequences for what one says as well. This seems to be lost on some.. Common sense should have told him what could have happened..If you work for a large media outlet with a reputation to uphold, and have access to media outlets on your own, you need to measure what you say out of fear of a) losing your job and b) the fact things can be taken out of context so easily