Hank Williams, Jr. and His Remark

Hank William, Jr. has a carefully-crafted reputation as being the "bad boy " of country music. As such, perhaps he felt that the public would pretty much hand him free rein over everything he said. And, to be perfectly honest, he IS an American and entitled to the protection of the First Amendment regarding his speech and opinions. But he was also making money representing a private media company (ESPN) with his weekly opening appearance on the Monday Night Football program. So his recent equation of President Obama with genocidal mass-murdering tyrant Adolf Hitler, while constitutionally-protected as free speech, still went way over the edge in regard to its propriety. Thank you, ESPN, for immediately dumping him. Had you not, though, I was preparing to launch my own personal boycott campaign against your company and sponsors...

One aspect to Junior's unfortunate diatribe that I haven't yet heard discussed was the fact that he made it while a guest on Fox News' Fox and Friends show. Evidently, ol' Hank felt real brave and cocky sitting around a bunch of like-minded right-wingers when he let loose his slime bomb. But didn't the dude realize that EVERYONE was going to hear him, not just his little insulated bubble of political "friends" who just sat there emptily grinning at him?

I've seen the same going on in political campaigning as well. In 2008, a surging Mike Huckabee, while trying to ingratiate himself with Christian fundamentalists in South Carolina who wanted nothing less than a Christian theocracy (with THEIR doctrine, of course), espoused to a sympathetic crowd that he wanted to change the United States Constitution to conform more closely with the Bible. Yes, he won points with that crowd, but his words went nationwide, scaring the hell out of millions and effectively torpedoing his presidential aspirations. Other examples of candidates saying objectionable and/or controversial things in ostensibly sympathetic settings... without regard to the fact that in today's instant-mass-communication age, EVERYONE is the real setting...abound without anyone seeming to understand what they are doing at the time they make their ill-chosen remarks.

Politicians and celebrities can no longer play to their extremist bases with inflammatory rhetoric and then turn around and claim to be more reasonable in other settings. Because, well, it's all out there now for everyone to see and hear!