March 27, 2006
Morgan Spurlock Apologizes To Helmet-Wearing Kids The World Over
Earlier today, I posted about Morgan Spurlock's comments at Hatboro Horsham High School, and how they offended people. He used the word "retarded," made a reference to kids wearing helmets, bashed McDonald's and cursed. You guys know the drill.
Spurlock has posted on his blog and has apologized to the community, with some clarifications and etc. Whatever. If he gave that speech at my school, I probably would have loved it, although he probably should have used more tact.
Naturally, judging from the comments to his blog post, people are acting like he's the first person to ever use the word "retarded" in a self-depricating way before. No, they're acting like he gunned down a few mentally challenged kids. And then blew up the Liberty Bell. (My favorite is the comment that chastizes him for using pejorative language and then calls him "white trash.")
Anyway, something in his blog post made me realize why he cursed -- he said he dropped two f-bombs -- during his speech. Responding to his AP quote that said the "greatest lesson those kids learned today was the importance of free speech," Spurlock posted the following (emphasis mine):
Lastly, in the article it quoted me as saying that the greatest lesson those kids learned was the importance of freedom of speech. When saying that, I did not mean that you have the right to insult anyone at will (as many people have interpreted it.) I was referring to the fact that the group that hired me to speak asked that I not mention McDonald's in any of my talk because one of their board members owns a franchise. That would be like asking Neil Armstrong to speak but tell him he can't bring up walking on the moon, so needless to say, I didn't agree to their censorship.
Someone actually hired Morgan Spurlock -- who is famous for one thing, making a movie about eating McDonald's for a month -- to give a speech and asked him not to mention McDonald's. Simply fantastic.
A Letter of Explanation [Morgan Spurlock's Blog]
Earlier today: Hatboro Horsham Not Lovin' It
Posted by D-Mac on March 27, 2006 02:18 PM
Posted to Free Speech
, High Schools
, McDonald's
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Comments
I don't see anywhere where he says it's okay.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 27, 2006 03:33 PM
McDonals's hiring MR's is honorable. Of course a bunch of HS students thought he was hilarious. Seperate the cursing from making fun of people who are challenged and are working in our society. I agree with ricky... pure crap. No excuse for such stupidity.
Posted by: mjm at March 27, 2006 05:41 PM
"people are acting like he's the first person to ever use the word "retarded" in a self-depricating way before."
That's the part where I see him saying it's okay. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it okay. Nor does it mean we shouldn't complain about it.
Posted by: ricky at March 27, 2006 07:58 PM
you guys are being retarded
Posted by: luke at December 12, 2006 12:22 PM
Reat! My credit needs dolly-up, but on the whole it’s fair. I was browsing in the Net and found a credit site. Somebody applied there? Please advice if you know. Isn’t it a scam? It’s called
Posted by: uvkigu at June 5, 2007 02:47 AM
Okay, so in regards to his use of the retarded word, you're spewing the exact same excuses as Spurlock did - since everybody else does it, it's okay. Sorry, that's pure crap. If something's wrong, it's wrong, period.
Posted by: lolomalo at July 1, 2007 01:23 PM
Okay, so in regards to his use of the retarded word, you're spewing the exact same excuses as Spurlock did - since everybody else does it, it's okay. Sorry, that's pure crap. If something's wrong, it's wrong, period.
Posted by: ricky at March 27, 2006 03:20 PM