The latest bilge from Orson Scott Card

[docwebster]

I can't even do justice to this schweinerei.

Go. Read.

After that.. electronic hairball, I wouldn't buy a single more publication by Orson Scott Card if you held a gun to my head.

Comments

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

Well, let me be a little bit of a moderate voice....

I'm open to the possibility of punishing media outlets for knowingly publishing false information. It seems to be a reasonable expectation. However, there may be First Amendment issues with this.

I also agree with Card that rioters in general, and Muslim rioters in specific, are not behaving as reasonable adults behave.

I don't think, however, that there is some "vast left-wing conspiracy" as Card implies. Certainly there is fanaticism and unreasonableness on the Left, just as there is on the Right. These are individuals, however, and need to be dealt with on an individual basis.

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

There are First Amendment issues, which is why the supermarket tabloids can publish "Elvis and Jesus seen bowling with aliens!" If someone publishes something demonstrably false that really harms someone, the laws are already in place for them to be sued for libel or some other thing.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, what Newsweek published was true, and there has been plenty of corroboration before and after. They simply folded under political pressure. Also, it seems the riots turned out to be over something else, although I can't find that link just now.

Regardless, the point is that if a magazine reports that our soldiers are commiting war crimes, and people get so angry about it that there are deadly riots, the blame lies not with the people who reported it, but with the people who committed war crimes.

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

I will agree with everything you said up to your last paragraph.

If our soldiers are committing war crimes, they should be punished for those crimes. If people choose to riot over those crimes, however, the blame lies with the people who chose to riot. Riots should not be treated as uncontrollable acts.