A commenter to my defense of bullshit on Huffington Post reminds us that when he ran for President in 1992, Sen. Tom Harkin was quoted by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on TV news saying: “George Bush and his fat-cat Republican friends say they are building a Conservative Opportunity Society. I’ve got a one word reply: Bullshit.” That is certainly political speech. But today, it would be censored or fined: NBC, the network, every station airing it, Harkin himself, and Mitchell if she repeated it. Politicians should be free to call bullshit. So should reporters. So should we. And we should be free to hear it. But not under the rule of the FCC, we’re not.
And let’s not forget that Harry S Truman called MacArthur’s old-soldiers-never-die speech “nothing but a damn bunch of bullshit.” Fine his dead ass.
: I just edited the post to run as a story in The Guardian Monday. I think I’ll have some fun and see whether any U.S. papers has the balls to call bullshit on bullshit.
