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Penn Jillette -- Libertarian

Penn Jillette is one member -- the big loud guy who talks -- of the top magic and comedy act "Penn and Teller." The duo are among the most successful magicians and entertainers in the world. They have appeared on Broadway and at top venues around the country. They regularly appear on TV shows such as Saturday Night Live and David Letterman. They have written two books: Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends and How To Play with Your Food. They star in the movie "Penn & Teller Get Killed."

Penn Jillette is also the official voice of the Comedy Channel. (Yes, he's the voice you hear between shows.) He writes a monthly column for PC Computing, and is active with the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Penn is also one of the few entertainers with the guts to speak out against government attempts to censor and control entertainers.

(By the way: Does anybody know if Jillette's partner, the always-silent Teller, is also a libertarian? He hasn't said anything about it, as far as we know.)

Quotable

Reason: How much of the anti-TV violence talk is just political posturing? Do you think the threat of government censorship is a real one?

Penn Jillette: Well, you know, I really get crazy about using the word censorship loosely. I think it's a misleading term, and I certainly don't think that the National Endowment for the Arts pulling money from Karen Finley is in any way, shape, or form censorship. It was very funny that the Karen Finley, Andres Serrano, and Mapplethorpe incidents were happening almost simultaneously with the 2 Live Crew troubles in Florida. Your New York liberals, your New York intelligentsia, were trashing 2 Live Crew and siding with Karen Finley, which is such a perversion of what's going on. I thought that was really diagrammatical of what's wrong with how people think about censorship.

The First Amendment says nothing about your getting paid for saying anything. It just says you can say it. I don't believe that if a corporation pulls all the money out of you or a network pulls their money away or you get fired, you're being censored.

....At some point, you've got to go -- and I realize that people don't even hear this any more -- with the First Amendment defense: Congress shall make no law. As Justice Douglas said, those are the only words you need in that amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." Do we need to see it [before we decide to censor]? No: Congress shall make no law.