My mother, may she rest in peace, spent her entire childhood and early adult life in Newtown, CT, the site of the recent horrific tragedy involving the senseless slaughter of 20 young school children. My grandparents lived there until they died. My very first bank account was at the Newtown savings bank. Sundays during my childhood were often spent at their little white two story home on Glover Avenue, a few houses in from the corner of Main Street. Newtown as I remember it was a sleepy little affluent Fairfield County town out of some Norman Rockwell painting. This tragedy saddens me on more levels than one can imagine.
Which brings us to Mike Hucksterbee and the Faux News Channel. On Friday, December 14, 2012 - another December "day that will live in infamy" - Mike Hucksterbee went on "Fox News and Friends" on the Faux News Channel to say this:
He then followed it up two days later, on December 16, 2012 with this "explanation":
In response, SumOfUs.org circulated an on-line petition to ask Faux News to censure Hucksterbee and remove him from the air. I signed this petition and shared it on Facebook with this caption: "More outrageous huckstering from Faux News and their shill-of-the-day Mike Huckster-bee! Tell Faux Need that this is unacceptable now and always!"
My 20 year friend and colleague Eric Turkewitz (author of the excellent New York Personal Injury Law Blog) responded:
DEW: Option two is to let him talk, and talk, and talk. And let the world see him for what he is.There is no bigger advocate of the First Amendment than me, but Hucksterbee's comments disrespect the lives and tragic, senseless deaths of those innocent children as well as the suffering of all who mourn for them, most especially their families. While he had every right to say it, I think Faux News has a moral responsibility to take away his bully pulpit until he develops a more appropriate filter. As consumers, we have the right, and in my opinion, the responsibility to pressure them into doing so.
'Til then, keep your knives sharp and your fingers out of the way!
DEW
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