Wheat and Chaff

I am SO sick of hearing 'censorship', every time someone makes a private decision not to support someone's asinine views.

The recent thing, in case you're not aware of it, is a comment by someone called "The Daily Kos", one of the biggest left-wing blogs out there. When Kos heard of the murder and mutilation of four US contractors in Fallujah recently, his response was "screw 'em", on the grounds that they were 'mercenaries'. He got a little bit of attention to that comment, including losing some advertisers, and everyone's crying about censorship.

I want to remind people: Censorship is when the GOVERNMENT prohibits speech. I, or any other private individual, can never exercise censorship. The coercive act would be if you could force me to advertise on your site, regardless of what you said. So if a private advertiser chooses not to advertise because they don't like what you're saying, that is not a violation of your First Amendment rights. Is it censorship when Planned Parenthood doesn't advertise on the Catholic Singles website? Or George W. Bush doesn't buy time on Talking Points Memo? Grow up.