So let me get this straight. Greenpeace, the guys on the rafts stopping international whaling by getting in front of the harpoon, are afraid of the harsh rhetoric of Stuart Carlson, so much so they are demanding MSNBC fire him? So upset are they that he dared to praise the French for protecting their national interests that they have filed a complaint with the FCC?
You may recall the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. The French were resuming nuclear testing when the eco-terrorist group Greenpeace decided to sail their boat out into the test zone to interfere with the tests. The French, with a rare sense of the national interest, decided not to let some save-the-whale types dictate a country's foreign policy.
The French really faced then two choices: confrontation on the high seas or sabotage in the harbor. Unfortunately the French chose to mine the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbor. The operation killed Greenpeace member Fernando Pereira. One could argue that a confrontation on the ocean may have resulted in possibly more dead Greenpeace members. We'll never know.
However, Carlson's comments are not beyond the pale and Greenpeace deserves no apology. They had no authority and no right to interfere with France's nuclear test. Such matters are to be resolved by states and not by international bandits. If on that day in July, 1985, Tucker Carlson found newfound respect for the French then that's just tough for Greenpeace.
The First Amendment applies to the law-abiding Tucker Carlsons of the world as well as to the law-breaking Greenpeace.
