Scalia: Don’t like super-PAC ads? Turn off the TV.

[babsbunny]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/205583-scalia-dont-like-super-pac-ads-turn-off-the-tv

By Jeremy Herb - 01/21/12 06:21 PM ET

On the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which said that corporations and unions could spend an unlimited amount on political speech, Justice Antonin Scalia gave a simple solution to those who don’t like result: turn off the TV.

Speaking during a presentation before the South Carolina Bar Saturday in Columbia, S.C., Scalia said he has no problem with the rise of the super-PAC ads that have glutted the state’s airwaves ahead of the primary there, according to the Associated Press.

[Warpy]

1. I think a lot of us will do exactly that

If TCM and FMC are showing shite and Link has talking heads I'm not particularly interested in and PBS is fundraising, you had better believe the TV will be off or playing a DVD and I'll be listening to loud music and getting something productive done for a change.

This coming campaign season might be just what I need to get rid of the box completely.

Then again, when it's all over, Science and National Geo and Ovation and the Documentary Channel will be back to normal and not shoveling shit out of the screen and into my face.

However, they will be off the first time I see a super PAC ad.

[Motown_Johnny]

2. Don't like polluted air? Stop breathing.

Makes about as much sense.

[former9thward]

3. Not really. You don't have to watch TV to survive.

[BzaDem]

4. Of course, when Arizona passed a law that would provide MORE money to candidates that were attacked,

to facilitate a response (which would be more speech), he struck that law down. (Arizona vs. Free Enterprise Fund)

Apparently, to Scalia, more speech is always good when it increases disparities in the electoral context. But when it decreases disparities in the electoral context, it is unconstitutional.

[EC]

5. We are paying for entertainment

at a pretty damn high price, so no, I'm not turning off my TV. If the bombardment doesn't cool down I'll complain everyday to the cable company and hope others do to. Maybe on the cable stations they could limit the number of political ads?

[applegrove]

6. That is no judge. That is a partisan hack.

[spanone]

7. what an arrogant prick.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Disingenuous bullshit

He knows very well people aren't complaining about the amount of ads they get on their own TV; they're complaining about the influence the unlimited money has on the perceptions of the population as a whole, normally because of high TV ad spending, but by no means limited to that. We can't turn off everyone's TV for them, because you stopped us, Scalia.

What's so sad is to see a judge who is supposed to be wise and neutral feels free to spout political bullshit like this.