Vintage Right-Wing Whine: Hank Jr. Says His First Amendment Rights Were Violated By ESPN

By John Amato — October 6, 2011

After Hank Williams' disastrous Fox & Friends appearance where he compared President Obama to Hitler and called him the "enemy" -- which was so egregious that even Gretchen disavowed his comments -- I told you he'd use the 'Laura Defense,' or the ludicrous "First Amendment'" victimhood defense, which conservatives and tea-party activists love to trot out whenever they say things so far out of bounds that even a company that caters to many right-wing viewers like ESPN does had to sever ties with him.

If Gretchen said that they disavowed his disgusting comments then you know it was way, way, way out there. And his remarks caused ESPN to pull him off of Monday Night Football tonight.

“While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

I'm sure he'll use the Dr. Schlessinger defense of saying his First Amendment rights were just violated by ESPN:

On the heels of a controversy surrounding her repeated use of the N-word on the air, Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced last night that her decades-long career on talk radio will be coming to an end this December.

"I made the decision not to do radio anymore," Schlessinger said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "I want to regain my first amendment rights. I want to be able to say what is on my mind, in my heart, what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry."

Dr. Laura Quits: Was She Forced Out or Were Her First Amendment Rights Really in Jeopardy?

Just last week in a debate about racism on her radio program, the conservative host used a racial slur 11 times on the air.

That's the standard tea party line of defense for all their incendiary rhetoric.

It didn't take him long to go there:

Williams, on his website, said he pulled the plug on his theme. "After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct. 3, you (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech," Williams wrote. "So therefore Me, My Song and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run."

The "MNF" theme, a version of Williams' "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" was the opening for the primetime game for over 20 years. It first aired when ABC had the package and moved to ESPN when it acquired the rights to "MNF."

Monday, Williams on Fox News Channel, compared a round of golf Obama played last month with House Speaker John Boehner last summer to "Hitler playing golf with (Israel's prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu." ESPN then pulled the Williams tune from Monday's Colts-Bucs telecast. It was replaced by the national anthem

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If you're a little fuzzy on what the first amendment applies to here's Glenn's explanation after Sarah Palin played the same victimhood card that her pal, Williams just used in 2008:

Make it stop. It hurts.

Somehow, in Sarah Palin's brain, it's a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama. Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

She's kidding me, right? Glenn explains what the 1st Amendment is and does for Sarah, since nobody in the McCain camp has.

The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said. If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press.