Speech Permitted

THE ABC has now published some comments on Big Ideas' webpage. Many are critical. How long will the thread last? Sportingbet should open a book.

ADVISORY: A beautiful day in Melbourne and the first tee beckons. Back tonight.

Black Out At Random House

UPDATE: As noted below, some Random House nerd has been obliged to visit the office on this holiday-weekend morning and take down the critical comments beneath Anita Heiss' publicly funded memoir of her crusade against free speech. Let us oblige that techie to make a return trip. Another of the publisher's pages devoted to Heiss' achievements is here and comments are open.

Make use of that forum until it, too, is silenced. They don't like the cold steel of honest words up 'em, that's for sure.

And here is an extra thought: The next time you buy a book, check the publisher. It is a work from Random House or one of its imprints, put the book back on the shelf! And if you are feeling particularly energetic, contact the author and tell him or her why a sale and a royalty have been lost.


For your guidance, the full list of Random House imprints: Ballantine Books, Bantam Dell, Delacorte Press, Del Rey/Spectra, The Dial Press, ESPN Books, The Modern Library, One World, Presidio Press, Random House, Spiegel & Grau, and Villard.

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WELL that didn't last long. Those champions of free speech at Random House have now taken down the comments thread beneath the promo for Anita Heiss' new book.

Did somebody copy them before they vanished? Let us hope so. They deserve a website of their own.

Ms Heiss' next book: Am I Blacking Out Enough Free Speech For You?

For the curious, and the moment, the comments are still available here in the cached version of the page.