Over at mtpolitics, Craig has turned up a pretty good story. Seems that the KSVI and KHMT TV stations has been broadcasting a controversial PETA ad promoting vegetarianism, then pulled the ads after the Montana Stockgrowers complained.

Craig welcomes this development, since he views PETA as essentially a terrorist group. I'm not sure how true that is, and I don't have time to research it today. PETA's official website does call for nonviolence, and I don't know of any criminal charges pending. So PETA seems to have as much right to a public forum as anybody.

As my comments on his site indicate, I'm uncomfortable with Craig's position for a couple of reasons:

1. It bugs me when powerful economic interests use their clout to force unfriendly messages off the air. If we can hear a hundred commercials a day promoting meat consumption, what shouldn't we hear one or two taking the opposite tack? I don't know this situation well enough to be certain that happened here, but it's worrisome.

2. Commercial broadcasters operate under federal licenses, subject to renewal, so when a station refuses to air a controversial opinion, that comes dangerously close to government censorship. I'm within a hair's breadth of being an absolutist on First Amendment issues. I think it's appalling when American citizens can't use their own money to purchase air time to make political and philosophical arguments on subjects of their choice. That's not how I read the Constitution I promised to protect and defend.