Mark Davis [mdavis@wbap.com], a correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, reports that Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is backing a film called Loose Change, which argues that 9/11 was an inside job and that our own government, not al-Qaeda terrorists, brought down the World Trade Centers in an act of deliberate murder.
Cuban does not believe in these claims which makes his his act, to quote Davis, of "stunning moral idiocy," all the more amazing.
Davis had an email exchange with Cuban. Cuban expounded on the evils of censorship and the courage involved in standing up to the status quo. What Cuban fails to understand -- or chooses not to understand -- is that there is a difference between protecting someones freedom of speech and providing the person with a soapbox on which to make his claims.
Davis asked Cuban if he would distribute a film called Slavery: It Wasn't So Bad or The Holocaust: The Jews Deserved It. I would add The Holocaust: It Never Happened
Cuban told Dais he would if they were "well produced." Has he even seen Birth of a Nation or read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Some would say these were well produced for their time. Should they be distributed even further?
The other thing that Cuban might reflect on is that the same people who spread 9/11 conspiracy theories are often -- not always but often -- Holocaust deniers, antisemites, and people opposed to the existence of Israel.
Free speech means people have a right to make complete asses of themselves. It does not mean that every idiot idea which comes out of a person's mouth -- however eloquently expressed -- should be provided with a place at the table.
As one pundit [I wish I knew who he was] said: Some people's minds are so open, their brains fell out. So it is with Mark Cuban.
[BTW, Cuban is Jewish. (This will matter to some people.) Which proves, in case one needed proof, you can be an MOT and an idiot at the same time.]
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