Freedom of speech in action (#343, Topic A)

At the beach, other than shopping (Rohobeth DE, with 4 discount shopping malls next to one another totalling 200+ brand-name stores with thousands of parking spaces, and with no sales-tax to boot, is a shopper's heaven), the alternative is to read newspapers -- most newspapers published on the East Coast are available. In today's Washington Post, one of its headlines is: "Terrorist" Remark Puts Outdoorsman's Carrer in Jeopardy." The remark, according to the story, written on his blog, is thus: "Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these [military-style assault] weapons among our hunting fraternity." The writer, despite his spending "much of his life writing for prominent outdoor magazines, delivering lecutres across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West," was quickly shot/shut down. Within days, his TV program on the Outdoor Channel was cancelled, the National Rife Association announced suspending professional ties with him, his editorship with Outdoor Life magazine "came to a sudden end," and Remington Arms and other "biggest names in gunmaking" "severed all sponsorship ties ... immediately." According to a fellow gun-owning-writer, this persona non grata "has been a voice for these people -- for hunting and for guns -- and they just turned on him in an instant." NRA's contention was: "Our folks fully understand that their rights are at stake," while Outdoor Life's editor-in-chief commented that "they ['terrorist'-rifle-owning' hunters] don't like to be called terrorists." So much for freedom of speech in action in USA.