Saturday, September 4, 2010
Arkansas Sports Speaking of the First Amendment — and Hogs
Posted by Max Brantley on Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 6:32 AM
It's a lovely day for football and the Hog message boards are lit up with excitement about the promising season.
But there's no joy in Hogville about word of a university crackdown on advertising banners at tailgate parties. No commercial messages will be allowed, in deference to the Hog's multi-million-dollar deal that sold all marketing opportunities to a private company. The comment thread, however, suggests banners for the likes of the Hogville.net community won't be allowed either.
Given the high-dollar UA marketing contract, I can understand the efforts to limit commercial signage on hallowed Hog ground. But I just don't see how a public university can — or would even if it could — impose restrictions on political speech on public land. But the Hogs do. From the various rules of conduct:
• Political signage that implies endorsement of any political candidate or any political issue may not be displayed nor may political materials be distributed without prior approval by The University of Arkansas.
That's just wrong. I hope the War Memorial Stadium commissioners and the city of Little Rock answer to a higher calling on their parking lots — i.e., the First Amendment.
Speaking of...
-
Legislator promoting time machine at UA
January 19, 2012State Rep. Jon Woods, who's seeking a Senate seat this year, has other weighty matters on his plate. /more/
-
Kitchen Incubator planned for West Memphis
December 2, 2011The city of West Memphis has developed plans to revitalize the depressed Arkansas delta by building its own 6,000 square foot kitchen incubator. /more/
-
Maylon Rice announces for state House
November 30, 2011Maylon Rice, a former newspaperman who's now director of the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District, has announced he'll run for the legislature as a Democrat for House District 85. /more/
-
Brownback student critic heading to Arkansas
November 28, 2011Emma Sullivan, the Kansas high school student who made a disparaging remark about Gov. Sam Brownback, is not backing down. /more/
-
Spending on sports
November 23, 2011A partial summary of revenues and expenditures from the five public Division 1 universities in Arkansas. Data on athletic expenditures is reported annually by the state Department of Higher Education. /more/
-
The cost of big-time football
November 12, 2011Joe Nocera, writing in the New York Times about the sex abuse case rocking Penn State, is unstinting in his criticism of the school and Paterno for its failures, particularly in an area that had already been rocked by Catholic church sex abuse. /more/
- More »
Comments (29)
Showing 1-29 of 29
Censorship they called it in the old days. Fan Dumb someone eluded to recently!
Political signage that implies endorsement......is prohibited. Hopefully this also applies to the endorsement of a particular religion!
like
dislike
Yes, this really is censorship.
The rules also prohibit video cameras at the stadium. Will they confiscate smartphones at the turnstiles? The SEC lawyers will be enraged when they discover fans broadcasting live audio and video from the stadium to the Internet.
They want your soul! They'll get your money. They already have your hearts and minds. It's your soul they really want. It's the only way to win the SEC.
Uh, isn't that exactly what the spam message from wangbadan110 IS above? An advertising banner at our metaphorical tailgate party? (Unless it's been removed as spam as I suggested?)
I love spam offers on discounted shoes as much as the next gal. But it's really really hard to try them on first over the internets.
Or maybe the A-T blog threads will become filled with commercial posts!
Mine, of course, are the epitome of tasteful interactive push advertising and often shared with loved ones as works of art. But that's another . . .
So, whilst awaiting my next show and withstanding this blam attack (blogging spam), I'm sitting around thinking, like so many Razorbabies, when able, about the current reversing of earth's magnetic poles, which I just read about on some scientific site and it's scary but I can't feel anything yet, and Ken Mehlman (the polar reverse of Kathy Griffin) and Same-Sex Marriage.
HERE'S a somewhat different take on the paradigm shift SSM represents, and why it seems so threatening.
More threatening even than blam or earth's magnetic poles reversing. (I STILL don't feel anything . . . .)
Or, as my beloved eLwood might say, "They're SYNCHRONOUS, you idiot."
http://www.reformer.com/ci_15968869?source…
Is it crazy I'm going for the tailgate party and not the game? I'm wondering if I'll find others who aren't going to enter those turnstiles.
I tired of Hogs Inc a long time ago and only watch them on TV when mag insists on it. I got no use for sports of any kind anyway, that's just the way I'm built, I'm not proselytizing here.
My youngest daughter is a mere hours away from seeing her first Razorback game in person and I'm excited for her. Even back in the no frills days of my youth, going to a Razorback game in Fayetteville was a thrilling experience. But....I've had enough of it.
mag is on her way up there to a tailgate party that I am happy to skip because I don't think it's right to go to your first tailgate party at the age of 55. Like trying LSD, it's just too late for me now.
I have plenty to do this afternoon and by not going I don't have to endure rabid alumni and copyrights Nazis. For fun I might grab an old bed sheet and paint KISS MY ASS and hang it from the compound balcony just because I can. But more probably I'll just work on one of my pressing projects and think pleasant thoughts about happier times in the past.
I feel the urge to chant NO GUNS FOR CAMPUS PIGS! That was great fun back in 1975. We hauled President Bishop out of his office and got a promise from him that no campus police would ever have guns under his tenure.
And of course after we all left for the summer, President Bishop signed the order to give every Barny Fife on campus his own shiny gun. Oh where have you gone, Overtis Hicks?
Oh....here you are! My god....you weren't all just talk after all!
http://www.henningmediation.com/obrantley.…
Now DBI. Where is your school spirit...mag is right to march herself right up there to tailgate. Its a perfect day for it...and you are not to old to g0 to your 1st one!!
I hope baby girl is having a fine time at U of A and hopes she enjoys her 1st game, the pre game is always good!
You come on down to LR next weekend and you and mag cam come to our tailgate, tent, gererator, T.V. and lots of food and beer...plus a 20 month old...hum...he may be a problem!
Nanc--on your "view profile" page, right under the avatar there is a link that says "edit bio". One of the choices under there is "photo" and you can browse and choose another picture off of your computer. Click Save your changes at the bottom of the page and you should have a new avatar!
Nanc, click on your name, then click on 'View Profile' in the upper right corner, then click on 'Edit bio' below your current avatar and then paste the URL or photo in the appropriate window. Voila!
Re Razorback games- they are as useful or useless, depending on your perspective, as you make them. Like DBI, I have no use for all the attention wasted on 'athletic contests' (can somebody tell me with a straight face that today's money game against Blob Tech is truly a 'contest'?). But for those who prefer to avoid the myriad complicated issues facing society today (note- some may pay divided attention to both, but none of us can steal any extra hours in our days to do both well), they are a diversion designed to lead us by the nose. Quick, what's the purpose of television? To provide entertainment? Bzzz, wrong answer. It is to sell products. The entertainment, if you can call some of it that, is just to get us to the platters of commercial ads. It's all sat fat.
Political signage that implies endorsement......is prohibited.
Now that might be a good idea. we certainly dont want our little chirren at the UofA to learn anything about politics or, most important, to learn to think for themselves.
But couldnt that prohibition from the UofA be interpreted to mean that HOG signage that slaps a person in the face with endorsement is included? Prolly not, since I guess by law the hogs arent a political organization. just wishful thinking.
like DBI, I have no use for the hogs either. It's a big business, it has nothing to do with student athletes or role models, and they might as well give in and operate it that way.
Does that rule mean that nobody can fly an airplane over razorback stadium with a sign that says Bobby Petrino is a Hotheaded Jerk? or has that sacred airspace already been restricted?
nanc, sounds like you have quite a party planned. even if I dont care about the football, I wouldn't mind a tailgate party now & then. good luck with the toddler! I have no suggestions there.
I sure hope that this wonderfully protected school doesn't lose to Tennessee Tech Regional High School tonight. Might slow down the development of their Arc de Triumph.
Do they really realize that they have an educational function (except the Walton School of Union Busting)?
The Razorback marching band is horrible - at least in this photo. Look at that line on the "A."
You'd think that in all of this talk about media and advertising/messaging control coming out of UA, the band director would get a little of it and pull that photo off the wire.
Sheesh! The arts always get screwed!
CBB,
remember Danny Ford's comment about some football player who transferred or did something else that irked the illustrious scholar/coach? Why, that boy didn't even come up here to play football anyway!!! He come up here to get a education!!!!
The nerve of some people. ;)
I know it wont last, but it is nice to see Rice turn back Texas on a goal line stand and now the score's 3-3. Enjoy while you can.
The Marching Razorbaby musicians are the best part of the entire day. All 327 of them practiced for two weeks just for this show, so, even if you're cynical about fuball being the regional religion at least pay respect to the chillren's who's making happy music.
Nice thing about band members is they don't turn out to be Lindseys, FireBlancheLincolns or Boozmans.
Just came back from Fayetteville Square and my bi-monthly cruise on Dickson St. Didn't look very 'razorbacky' to me but I didn't venture over the hill to the stadium.
eLwood, I went to LRU before it was absorbed into the U of A system but went to graduate school at the old GIT in Little Rock. Since we were part of the "university", we were allowed to buy $10 tickets in the end zone at War Memorial which meant we saw only about half the game. Now, of course, this was 1964, when all the visuals you got were binoculars. The fans of the day, who may or may not have gone to UA (I expect most didn't), were obnoxious and drunk before they left the parking lot. I grew up 3 blocks from that stadium and I think the only real football there was and is Catholic High, even when they lose.
where is Sister? Arkansas State "RED WOLVES" are leading Auburn, the ........ Something Mullets, and the Auburn coaches are about to come undone.
that band picture could be from a rehearsal, too -- Thurs & Friday, area high school teams kicked off their seasons in razorback stadium. so that could be a band practice too.
CBB, when we lived in little rock we had season tickets for LR games. I dont remember them costing that much, but Im sure you're right. Either that or back then, you got a price break for buying the season tickets. we lived past the med center, close enough to walk to War Memorial. no parking hassle.
one year our end zone seats - they were always in the end zone -- were on the very top damn row. I was terrified the entire time. Our neighbors should have bought 2 seats each and always stopped at KFC for a bucket and a 64-oz Coke EACH before they got to the game. The ex was fortified with liquid courage and warmth but I was just flat out terrified.
we used to start out a little early so we could stop at that bar right across from UAMS - dammit, I cant remember its name, and it was a flat out legend! -- they tore it down and put in a Taco Bell. What was the name of that place? It was just a dump but it was so much fun. I dont think you could graduate from med school until you had spent the required # of evenings there. And now I cant think of the name, but I can see it in my mind. This is an easy one - someone help!
How ironic. A university censoring speech.
I thought universities are where all sorts of ideas are allowed to flourish. I guess not.
Nanc, I like DBI paid a visit to the campus a couple of weeks ago. Times have changed since the "70's and it's all business now. Just parking a car on campus will cost you $500. I thought it pretty interesting that if you live in the Northwest part of the campus you have to jump on a transit bus to take you down to the parking lot that is next to Hwy. 62 to retrieve your car!
Goof, Don't I know...back in the day my freshman dorm ,Hotz Hall had a parking lot for about 75 cars, it was usually more than half empty, I din't know a single freshman girl with a car unless that were commuting. Its so congested now...it was such a nice place "back in the day".
Nanc & Goof,
lots of my kids' friends have lived off campus and had to drive to shuttle bus stops. that could take up half your day. but thats as close as they could get.
Lord help us, I remember parking (my friend's daddy doing the driving) @ Hotz Hall.
And yes, Peck's. obviously my brain cells are leaving faster than normal these days. Thank you.
Author Archives
-
Sunday line
Open to you. Slow, except for the Pleasant Pointe Apartment fire in West Little Rock, shown in photo above sent on Twitter by KATV's Todd Yakoubian.
- Dec 11, 2011
-
The times, but not Ark. Times, are changing
Laura Phillips, mother of the redoubtable Will Phillips of West Fork, is on a bandwagon on Facebook because of friends' inability to get local newspapers to publish news of their marriage.
- Jan 23, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: No beer today at Porter's Jazz Cafe
With as much city involvement as there has been in this project - Dean Kumpuris…
- on February 8, 2012
-
Re: The long march is on; today's flavor — Santorum
While I'm tipping my hat to Charles Pierce, go read his belated birthday card to…
- on February 8, 2012
-
Re: The long march is on; today's flavor — Santorum
@Doc: I think he's referring to Ark. Const. Art. 19, § 1.
§ 1…- on February 8, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
