Per Reuters, Hugo Chavez is outraged that false rumors about him are appearing on the internet. “It’s a crime,” cried Hugo, defiantly shaking his pudgy little finger at cameras. (Chavez made no mention of his government-run media outlets repeatedly accusing the United States of decimating Haiti with an earthquake-generating weapon.)
Comments on the Reuters site were mostly negative re: Mr Chavez’s statement. Commenter AGobbles reaveals:
Chavez is financing the next [Sean] Penn movie. Penn plays a South American dictator who undergoes a sex change operation in an attempt to become a man. Hugo will play his wife, Gordita Nalgas, a chubby water ballet member who eats nothing but milk and twinkies. The movie has tentative titles of Last of the Red Hot Banana Lovers or Hugo Before I Go.
The same article caused less of an uproar across the pond. Brits commenting on the same story in The Independent. Commenter Ash1168 says:
Slander, lies, inciting hatred.. these are all crimes. Put them in a newspaper, and you can expect to be prosecuted.
Promulgate them in a public speech, and you will be prosecuted. Disseminate them in any way they can be traced back to you – same result. Why should the internet be any different?
Why indeed? In fact, why should there be any free speech, ever, for anyone? Someone may deem it a lie, or slanderous, or hateful.
Perhaps Ash1168 needs to quit being a sniveling totalitarian pansy. (Please email for my home address where you can send the bobbies.)