Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Those nutty Republicans

Foaming conservative TV star Bill O'Reilly attacked a college president when he refused to appear on O'Reilly's show, saying he was "afraid" to appear and suggesting he "needed to be fired" for refusing to censor a student publication. The administrator replied, "Bill O'Reilly doesn't know the First Amendment from the back of his own hand, which is a shame because he takes full abuse of it." (Link courtesy MediaBistro's "news feed.")

The administrator, Univesity of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer, referred to a 2000 Supreme Court decision that directly contradicts O'Reilly's claims that a university can shut down a student publication funded by student fees.

I wonder if Frohnmayer is related to John Frohnmayer, the NEA chief under Bush I who, in 1990, became a center of controversy when he forced the NEA to deny funding to several artists who used sexual or gay-friendly themes in their work. The unfunded artists, who included Karen Finley, became known as the NEA Four, and the case led to Congress ending NEA funding for individual artists.

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