{"id":10530,"date":"2020-11-20T12:02:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=10530"},"modified":"2020-11-23T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T20:20:10","slug":"overlooked-stories-of-the-week-freedom-of-speech-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/11\/overlooked-stories-of-the-week-freedom-of-speech-edition.html","title":{"rendered":"Overlooked stories of the week: freedom of speech edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 11\/20\/20<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Freedom of speech is a religious liberty and human rights issue that affects us all. <\/strong>Skepticism is a word that is dangerously out of fashion these days. A lack of tolerance for dissenting thought is what makes theocracies so dangerous. I don&#8217;t care how devout a Catholic you are, IMHO, none of us should want the Pope running the government. Likewise, we shouldn&#8217;t extend a doctrine of infallibility to an alliance of globalist corporate media, Big Tech fact checkers (aka censors) and the leaders of the Democratic Party.\u00a0 And, yes, I&#8217;d say the same thing about a similar information cartel involving Donald Trump and the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>We, as a people, don&#8217;t need to be protected from alternative facts (aka alternative perspectives).\u00a0 We need to be exposed to them so that we can make informed decisions. By weighing everything, we can separate the wheat from the chaff and balance the legitimate arguments of all sides.<\/p>\n<p>With all that off my chest, here are some overlooked stories for this week.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From John Stossel:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Climate Hustle\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZBGCjqUdQJQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO: <\/strong>It&#8217;s amazing to me how in recent years &#8220;science&#8221; has become a magic word that makes debate disappear &#8211; especially on matters that, no matter what the globalist corporate media tells us, all scientists don&#8217;t agree on. The scientific perspective is very important but, especially when it comes to predicting <a href=\"http:\/\/predicting eco-apocalyptic end times\">eco-apocalyptic end times<\/a>, the doomsday scientists of the have been no more accurate than your run-of-the-mill religious zealot. Thank God for skeptics! <strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>From <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2020\/11\/cbs-diversity-targets-reality-casts-bipoc-commits-unscripted-development-budget-1234611548\/\">Deadline<\/a>: <\/strong><em>(CBS) has introduced an edict that 50% of its casts for its unscripted shows must be Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) and it has committed that at least 25% of its annual unscripted development budget must go towards creators and producers that are BIPOC.<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>IMHO: <\/strong>I am a big advocate for diverse perspectives in storytelling. I think we all benefit from it and any broadcast network or media outlet would be wise to cast a wide net that speaks to and for everyone in our diverse nation. But this kind of heavy-handed coercive is storytelling by committee (which is usually awful storytelling) and only sows resentment. And, BTW, isn&#8217;t the BIPOC acronym kind of redundant?<\/p>\n<p><strong>From<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/he-makes-you-feel-like-youre-questioning-your-sanity-mark-burnetts-disruptive-reign-at-mgm\"><strong>The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/a>: <em>(Reality show producer\/Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group Mark) Burnett\u2019s position in Hollywood has been damaged by his association with Trump, whose billionaire-businessman image was crafted and sold to the public through The Apprentice. Sources say Burnett made efforts to lure Fargo creator Noah Hawley and Warren Littlefield, producer of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale and Fargo, to his house for dinner and was repeatedly rebuffed. Sharon Osbourne recently told THR that she, too, had refused invitations. \u201cI would never go to his parties and he would be like, &#8216;Why?\u2019\u201d she says.<br \/>\n<\/em><em><strong>From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/entertainment\/whitney-cummings-calls-out-hollywood-trump-supporters\/\">Mediaite<\/a>: <\/strong>In a new interview, (actress\/comedian) Whitney Cummings says more people in Hollywood should try to empathize with supporters of President Donald Trump&#8230;.Cummings explained, \u201cI\u2019m fascinated by playing devil\u2019s advocate and want to understand the people I disagree with. I don\u2019t want to dismiss and malign. I think it\u2019s very self-righteous or sanctimonious to just dismiss people we disagree with without trying to understand why they believe what they believe.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> So, it seems even a mega-successful TV creator like Mark Burnett isn&#8217;t immune to the vindictive venom of the Cancel Culture crowd. I think Whitney Cummings speaks to this issue quite well &#8211; though I see speaking up for tolerance as actually being quite the opposite of &#8220;playing devil&#8217;s advocate.&#8221; I think it&#8217;s siding with our better angels.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also from John Stossel (who was on fire this week):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Freeloader U\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-uYERZX0aJM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> Maybe it&#8217;s time to Defund the Thought Police.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And, finally, from YouTube (Published February 22, 2018):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Kids Meet a 101 Year Old | Kids Meet | HiHo Kids\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/69HgC2KghBc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> When all is said and done, this (sharing the wisdom of the past to be built on by the citizens of the future) is what makes America &#8211; and humanity &#8211; worth preserving. No Great Reset needed.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 11\/20\/20 Freedom of speech is a religious liberty and human rights issue that affects us all. Skepticism is a word that is dangerously out of fashion these days. A lack of tolerance for dissenting thought is what makes theocracies so dangerous. I don&#8217;t care&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,12,744,13,1085,7192,14,22,26,4318,3586,1031,31,1],"tags":[10497,652,10500,10503,10494,10506,10509],"class_list":["post-10530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-doctrine","category-education","category-environmentalism","category-family-matters","category-forgiveness","category-freedom","category-gratitude","category-media","category-politics","category-racism","category-religious-liberty-2","category-science","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-bipoc","tag-cbs","tag-chairman-of-mgm-worldwide-television-group-mark-burnett","tag-fargo-creator-noah-hawley","tag-john-stossel","tag-warren-littlefield","tag-whitney-cummings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Overlooked stories of the week: freedom of speech edition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Overlooked stories of the week: freedom of speech edition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 11\/20\/20 Freedom of speech is a religious liberty and human rights issue that affects us all. Skepticism is a word that is dangerously out of fashion these days. A lack of tolerance for dissenting thought is what makes theocracies so dangerous. I don&#8217;t care&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/11\/overlooked-stories-of-the-week-freedom-of-speech-edition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-20T17:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-23T20:20:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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I don&#8217;t care&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/11\/overlooked-stories-of-the-week-freedom-of-speech-edition.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2020-11-20T17:02:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-23T20:20:10+00:00","author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10530"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10824,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530\/revisions\/10824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}