Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 10/31/22

From CNBC: Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, said Twitter will have to “fly by our rules” after Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the company.
IMHO: The EU can do what it wants. In the US we respect free speech. Twitter should be treated as a utility providing regular folks the same opportunity to have their voices heard as politicians, media oligarchs and celebrities. You think the world is flat. I think that’s misinformation but have at it. The same goes for what ever your thoughts might be on vaccines, election security, gender debates or what have you. Of course, there needs to be a few very basic rules. Here are my humble suggestions.

1. No threats to individuals or groups.
2. No coordinated or targeted harassment of any individual or group.
3. No use of actual hate terms (i.e. the N word), particularly those aimed at racial, ethnic, religious or sexual groups. Make a list of what they are and simply don’t allow their use. But keep it tight enough so that every utterance of disagreement isn’t labeled hate speech. Not everything’s a “code word.”
4. No cursing (i.e. the F word). I know that notion sounds quaint but it’s the flippant use of such words that inevitably drives down the quality of discourse. The bottom line is that Twitter should be about expressing ideas not name calling.

From the New York Post: Comedian and liberal icon Jon Stewart slammed Hunter Biden’s past role serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm as “corruption straight up off the bat.”
Here’s a discussion of the that on Fox News. The pertinent portion begins at the 1:57 mark.

IMHO: I used to have a lot of respect for Jon Stewart as a liberal who made some good points for his side while occasionally being willing to admit that conservatives had a point or two about something. He certainly didn’t seem to be one who would join a Woke mob – that is until his recent egregious and mind-numbing ambush of the clearly not-racist writer Andrew Sullivan.

Of course, Stewart’s Apple TV+ has failed to catch on. Personally, I suspect his shameful display above (and I’m talking on the level of how one human being treats another human being) was a sad attempt to win back leftist fans who weren’t too thrilled with this (literally) viral bit from Stephen Colbert’s Late Show in which he expressed what a lot of folks were already thinking about the Wuhan Lab.

I can’t help but suspect his latest comments are designed to win back those of us who were really turned off by what he did to Sullivan. An apology to Sullivan would be more effective.

From Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime: Great question at the 4:33 mark – Will future generations be appalled by some of the current decisions we’re actually making as a society? What are some things we do today that are generally accepted but will look bad in the future?

IMHO: Bill makes a good point about the mistreatment of animals. I’d add the mistreatment of children – from the womb (where, despite the clear science, we treat them as having no rights at all), through education (where we tolerate poor kids being trapped in failing schools) and healthcare (where we are already hearing from young people who believe they’ve been physically and emotionally abused by transgender ideology overtaking medical ethics). I’d also add our apparent willingness to trade away the First Amendment for protection from the what government deems “misinformation.” Let’s face it. Our current society is going to have a lot to answer for. Maybe we should go a little easier on judging the generations that preceded us.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.