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Poor timing, but hey, everyone loves controversy!

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  • Poor timing, but hey, everyone loves controversy!

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politi...09-13yw0z.html

    Just a quick background: the ABC is entirely government funded. SBS is half-government funded but is then entirely commercially-funded, while Channels 7 and 9 are both commercially funded. (along with whatever digital channels they have)

    So a bunch of Christian evangelicals disguised as a political party decided to create an ad around anti gay-marriage, which basically also proceeded to alienate a good chunk of the heterosexual Australian population (basically any family which did not consist of mum, dad and their biological children (no half-children, no step-children) was alienated in this ad). They put it out there to whichever networks would air it and while a couple accepted, the big issue was that they wanted to air it during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade (basically a GIANT pride parade) on SBS.

    Long story short, the ad received a ton of backlash from members of the public and SBS chose not to air it. 2 other channels opted to air it and they're now receiving backlash. Most of the ads that were on during SBS were a mixture of beyondblue support ads aimed at the LGBT population along with the standard fare and some promos for their "Queer Cinema" block (not my words-basically SBS has a timeslot every week where they run a movie, but they do it in themes, so for instance, one block was Miyazaki movies, another block was 80's teen flicks).

    The comments at the moment tend to fall into three categories: those who are against the ad or it being aired; those who are against what they see as "media censorship" or who cite free speech and have become annoyed that because SBS is partially government-funded they should've aired the ad* ; and those who are just anti gay-marriage overall.

    *-this argument is a special breed of dumb, because of two things: freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism and media censorship really only technically applies in the realm of the government. The GOVERNMENT is not opting to pull this ad and even complaining to the Ad Standards Board (the government group that handles this stuff) hasn't worked because it's political!
    Last edited by fireheart17; 03-09-2015, 10:56 PM.

  • #2
    The free speech argument is especially dumb as we have no guarantee of free speech in Australia
    I am a sexy shoeless god of war!
    Minus the sexy and I'm wearing shoes.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Nyoibo View Post
      The free speech argument is especially dumb as we have no guarantee of free speech in Australia
      We've had a few idiots who seem to think it applies everywhere, such as privately owned message boards like this one. Every so often, we have to clamp down on a controversial topic on CS, or a flame-war, and someone will throw the First Amendment around, and complain about their "Freedom of speech" being trampled. It's always fun pointing out to these idiots that the First Amendment doesn't apply to privately owned message boards, especially ones in other countries.
      --- I want the republicans out of my bedroom, the democrats out of my wallet, and both out of my first and second amendment rights. Whether you are part of the anal-retentive overly politically-correct left, or the bible-thumping bellowing right, get out of the thought control business --- Alan Nathan

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      • #4
        Originally posted by MadMike View Post
        We've had a few idiots who seem to think it applies everywhere, such as privately owned message boards like this one. Every so often, we have to clamp down on a controversial topic on CS, or a flame-war, and someone will throw the First Amendment around, and complain about their "Freedom of speech" being trampled. It's always fun pointing out to these idiots that the First Amendment doesn't apply to privately owned message boards, especially ones in other countries.
        This has mostly been my argument of late as a number of people have complained about censorship. No, censorship really only applies if the government forbids the ad from being shown. SBS may have some government funding, but they are not government controlled, so technically they can do whatever they please in that regard. (They are restricted by the usual content guidelines, but otherwise it's all good) the government hasn't restricted the ad (partially because the group that are doing it are a political party), the networks can.

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        • #5
          Australia has no bill of rights, so the right to freedom of speech does not actually exist, it's just implied.
          I am a sexy shoeless god of war!
          Minus the sexy and I'm wearing shoes.

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          • #6
            And in the latest twist of irony, the Daily Telegraph (NSW's answer to The ADvertiser aka crappy paper) has published an opinion piece between Fred Nile (holds some somewhat outdated views) and someone else about the censorship of the ad.

            The irony is that nobody's allowed to comment on it

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