Kristy and V had better be grateful they’re not students at Long Island University. If they were, their Hugh Manatee hostage videos could land them in hot water:
Five college students have been stripped of residence hall jobs and are facing campus hearings for making a video that mimics a hostage taking, university officials said Thursday.
In the video, five figures in ski masks speak in crude Middle Eastern accents as they threaten their captive, a rubber duck that serves as the mascot of a residence hall at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. …
The video was accompanied by a statement saying it was a joke, but university administrators saw it as insensitive.
My favorite part is this quote: “This is not an issue of free speech, but rather an issue of respect for others and insensitively to acts of violence.” Heh. Yeah, right. Suppressors of free speech never think it’s “an issue of free speech,” do they?
UPDATE: Here’s more from Newsday, which apparently broke the story:
A video by five students at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University depicting ski-masked “hostage-takers” speaking in cartoonish Middle Eastern accents has drawn condemnations from local Muslim leaders.
The university dismissed the students from their jobs as residence hall assistants in Brookville Hall, saying they had engaged in activity that violated their employment contract and that reflected “insensitivity.”
In the video, which mocks those aired by real-life terrorists, five figures speak in exaggerated accents as they threaten their captive, a rubber duck dubbed “Pete,” according to an account in the student newspaper that knowledgeable campus sources agreed was accurate. The subtext is understood to many on campus: The duck is the mascot for Brookville Hall.
While friends of those who created the film amphasized it was made in jest, Muslim leaders did not see the humor. They acknowledged students’ right to freedom of speech, but said that right carries responsibility.
I always love it when the phrase “freedom of speech” is followed by the word “but.”
The students’ names are Robert Bennett, Bert Estrada, Dustin Frye, Jordan Marmara and Billy McDermott. They’re all seniors. In addition, RubberDuckGate “apparently also cost Brookville Hall’s residence hall director, Kristin Kielczewski, her job.”
According to Newsday, McDermott “said yesterday that Brewington had advised him and the other fired student resident assistants not to comment beyond saying, ‘We’re getting our ducks in a row.’” Heh. Well, at least somebody has a sense of humor.
February 8th, 2007 at 5:39:22 pm
I don’t know what you’re talking about?! Kristy and I are both very concerned about Hugh’s whereabouts. Kristy is especially distraught. I only hope that the perpetrator of this crime is brought to justice! Oh Hugh Manatee!
February 8th, 2007 at 5:55:22 pm
Well, as we all know, the litmus test for the intervention of authorities is “harm to other rubber duckies.”
February 8th, 2007 at 7:27:59 pm
I want to know how or why no one has the right not to be offended these days?
It’s parody. Beyond most other forms of political speech, parody should be the MOST protected.
Face it, most hostage takers these days (especially the ones making videos) are Muslims.
Does that mean that ALL Muslims are terrorist kidnappers? Uh, no. The more outrage that “Muslim leaders” express at the kids with the parody video, the LESS sympathetic the rest of the American population will feel.
We’re going to quickly become a disclaimerized society due to all of this PC/tolerant bullsh*t.
If the Muslim leaders don’t like the video, tell them to come out, make a statement, call a press conference. Say that they hate to live in a world where this kind of video HAS to be made. Say that it’s unfortunate that these students had real-life terrorists to imitate.
Emphasize their hatred and condemnation for radical Islamic terrorists that kill innocents. Work and pray for a better day when the radical elements of Islam have been squelched, and peaceful Muslims can live and enjoy the freedoms of a free society such as ours.
It’s like no one these days can do anything but immediately go to the extreme of banning or prohibiting any and every little thing he doesn’t like.
It’s ridiculous and absurd. If the free thinking people of this country don’t stand up to those who’ll violate our freedoms despite our Constitution, pretty soon, we won’t have any freedoms.
Free Speech in our modern age is an amazing thing. I can sit in my home and contact millions of people instantly, without massive marketing/publicity campaigns. But, if we get to the point where someone “in authority” is monitoring every word we say for content, then all the technology is pointless.
The administration of that university should be ashamed of what they’ve done. They should apologize to each of those students, and thank them for keeping the idea of a university where ideas can be freely exchanged alive and well.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:50:58 pm
[…] pportunity to think and express opinion. As my friend, Brendan Loy points out, it seems more and more t […]
February 8th, 2007 at 9:30:11 pm
Hmmm, better pull 24 from the air, then.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:22:18 am
I find much of the whole Hugh Manatee story disturbing: The shittacular acting, the bizarre and sadistic torture scene, but most of all, the fact that Loy travels with a stuffed animal.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:57:24 am
Bunch of Quacks ;>
February 9th, 2007 at 9:00:06 am
With freedom comes responsibility. You are technically free to shout “Fire” in a crowded movie theatre…but such an irresponsible act could cause serious harm. I fail to see the harm in what these student have done. If we judge actions/speech by the offense they inflict on other people, walking and talking would be outlawed. There is a big difference between actions which cause harm, and actions which offend!
February 9th, 2007 at 9:10:54 am
A video by five students at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University depicting ski-masked “hostage-takers” speaking in cartoonish Middle Eastern accents has drawn condemnations from local Muslim leaders.
Brendan, didn’t you get the memo that Muslim outrage trumps free speech? had they done it with a cartoonish Irish brogue, they would have gotten away with it.
No one fears Irish Catholics. Particularly USF… ;-)
February 9th, 2007 at 11:29:49 am
Especially considering that the shouting-fire-in-a-crowded-theater argument first came into being as an argument to jail critics of WWI and the draft.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:24:13 pm
There is a big difference between actions which cause harm, and actions which offend!
Yes. This is the key point, and one which far too many people nowadays totally fail to comprehend — as evidenced by the frequent confusion of the terms “hate speech” and “hate crime.” I often hear those phrases used interchangably, and it really disturbs me. Except under truly extraordinary circumstances, SPEECH IS NOT A CRIME.
Reminds me of my confrontation with the USC official who was trying to shut down a political protest by Kucinich supporters outside the 2004 presidential-primary debate. The protest involved “puppets” of Kerry and Edwards being controlled by a guy on stilts with a sign that said “Corporate Media.” Mind you, I’ve got no love for Kucinich or his supporters, but I’ll be damned if I was going to stand silently while their freedoms were oppressed on the basis of a totally flimsy excuse. And it was indeed flimsy: the official absurdly claimed that the puppet show amounted to a simulated “hanging,” and that this was somehow “unsafe.” His language is sadly indicative of how the forces of “politically correct” oppression constantly conflate “causing harm” and “causing offense.”
His last line makes it crystal-clear: he thinks it’s a safety violation because the speech itself is unsafe. Not because of some collateral consequence, not even because it might incite unsafe behavior, but because the chosen mode of expression, in and of itself, is “unhealty” and therefore unsafe. In other words, “I don’t like it, so they can’t say it.”
Welcome to the new America. In the old America, my right to swing my arm ended where your nose began. In the new America, my right to swing my arm ends wherever you feel offended by my arm-swinging.
February 9th, 2007 at 6:17:16 pm
I feel threatened by your ominious discussion of arm swinging, Brendan. I’m afraid I won’t tolerate this sort of behavior as I fear for my safety.
My lawyer will call you on Monday…