Opaque Lucidity

But It's My Right!

I was going to wait and do my podcast on this topic later this evening, but since some of you read this blog and do not listen to the podcast, I think it’s important (at least to me) to address this issue here.

To fully understand what’s bothering me, I need to explain two things. First, there is ipodder.org. Ipodder is a podcast directory. If you visit the site, you will see that all the podcasts listed there are broken down into categories. Each category is overseen by a volunteer, so it’s really a conglomeration of dozens of separate directories. If you could look inside the ‘Education’ directory (it’s down right now), you would find my podcast.

Second, there is Adam Curry. Curry is a former DJ, VJ and is now considered to be one of the fathers of podcasting. He is the idea man behind ipodder.org and, as far as I know, is still the head of the project. His podcast, “Daily Source Code”, is downloaded by thousands of people a day. This fact will become important later.

The trouble started when a white supremacist podcast was listed in the ‘Politics’ category on ipodder. Someone or a group of someones contacted Curry and asked him to remove the podcast from the directory. Instead of doing so immediately, he mentioned the issue on his podcast and asked for listener’s input. Here is the e-mail I sent him:

I listened with interest to your thoughts on xxxxxxxx. This a sticky situation; no matter what happens, someone will be unhappy. But as a student of history, I think I may be able to add something to the conversation.

Let these people have their day so everyone can see what they're really about. My guess is that they won't be a problem for long.

When I updated iTunes this morning, Curry’s latest podcast was out there. In it, he devoted some time to discussing the e-mails he had received. He started out by saying that one person told him that since iPodder is a private organization, he could pretty much do anything he wants. That, of course, was me. EVERYONE else, Curry said, thought that the creators of the offending podcast had a right to be heard because of our freedom of speech.

I instantly got mad. First, he completely missed the point of my argument. My point was twofold: first, that most people would claim that these people have a right to be heard. In fact, this right does not exist. The freedom of speech mentioned in our Constitution does not give any of us the right to say anything we want at any time. The First Amendment guarantees that the government will not infringe on our speech rights. The owner of a private company, however, has every right in the world to restrict your free speech rights when you are on his property or, in this case, listed on his podcast directory. He may not choose to, but he should not hide his decision behind an argument about free speech. The fact that Curry did shows that he (and many of his listeners) lack a fundamental understanding of how far free speech rights in a free nation actually extend.

I would continue to list the podcast on iPodder. However, as I stated in my e-mail, my only reason for doing so would be to show what sort of losers these dirtbags really are. If you let a moron ramble on long enough, he will prove how stupid he is. These ne’er do well types are the same way. In my opinion, we should let them run their mouths for as long as they want. They will soon tire of doing the real work of podcasting and will go back to crying and cleaning their guns in mommy and daddy’s basement.

Curry did not mention my name during his podcast, so I am sort of “outing” myself by bringing this up. But I find this entire episode disturbing on many levels. On top of that, there is the issue of Curry himself. He is constantly railing against the media and how they treat celebrities. They take things out of context or make things up out of whole cloth. Yet, he takes one sentence out of an e-mail of mine and holds it up so that I come off looking like an idiot, if only to myself.

Sorry to dump this on all of you. And before you suggest it, I am NOT going to write to Adam and ask for a clarification. I don’t expect him to revisit this issue again, so writing would be a waste of time. As I mentioned before, I will talk about this during my podcast tonight, even though it has nothing to do with history.