Comments on: Breaking News

By: Bureaucrash - Join the Resistance » Blog Archive » Government fires webcomic writer for talking about a gun, then calls him a terrorist for making a comic about it.

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:19:53 +0000

[...] http://www.fleen.com/archives/2007/05/03/breaking-news-3/ Email This Print This [...]

By: SolidStateMind

SolidStateMind — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:38:14 +0000

I hate to say this, but I think that Matt needs to consider the possibility that he made an enemy who specifically exploited things to cause him grief– after all, clearly the person in question was MONITORING his blog to see how he responded (given that a fan would not turn him in for ‘terroristic threats’)

Of course, given that Matt specifically drew a woman with a surprised look on her face in the comic in question, I think that he probably has an idea of who it was that got him fired, and had that guess confirmed when the police showed up at his door.

Somebody needs to tell that pathetic person that life is not a soap-opera that they star in.

By: Funny Paperless

Funny Paperless — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:24:19 +0000

[...] A rather unhappy story of our paranoid times is that of Matt Boyd, who got into a conversation in his office about a gun he wanted to buy. But he did it the day of the Virginia Tech shootings (before he had even heard the news) and one or more coworkers who had heard the news and overheard him freaked out and reported him to management. He was fired. Now, normally, that would be all, but Matt is the co-author of, not a blog, but a bloggy “personal journal” webcomic titled “Three Panel Soul”, so, obviously the incident was the subject of a short series of strips. And a couple days after their weblication*, he got a visit from investigators from the State’s Attorney’s Office regarding what they considered a “borderline terroristic threat” (the investigators’ own words… Mr. Boyd tell the whole story here). [...]

By: WendellWit » Blog Archive » In the immortal words of Daffy Duck: Shoot Me Now!

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:21:58 +0000

By: zentinal

zentinal — Fri, 11 May 2007 15:58:57 +0000

So, where did he work?

By: groc22

groc22 — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:07:45 +0000

> rough up citizens, treat people like criminals
> but donâ€™t do anything to effectively catch real terrorists.

it’s kinda hard to catch real terrorists when they don’t exist. For all years of “war on terror”, if I’m not mistaken, the best government’s effort to present a terrorist was Jose Padilla. Not even a single attempt to have a serious trial.

By: socrates johnson

socrates johnson — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:47:19 +0000

Censorship is bad! (oh wait… I think the terrorists win when I say that.)

By: Nowhere-Fast.net » Blog Archive » More Speech Stuff

Nowhere-Fast.net » Blog Archive » More Speech Stuff — Fri, 11 May 2007 02:46:11 +0000

[...] It’s a sign of our times that the guy who writes that comic was fired because he dared mention a gun while at work.Â It’s even more shocking that he was visited by the police because he wrote this comic strip and posted it online.Â There’s a slightly more comprehensive article here. [...]

By: Andrew Hall

Andrew Hall — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:06:19 +0000

I think it’s appalling, and in violation of Matt’s First Amendment rights. I’d have to think artistic expression – humor included – is one of the things the First Amendment protects, and protects vociferously. Something tells me Matt probably won’t want to go through the hassle of suing the police department over it, but one wonders if he’d have a case.

By: xMotherx

xMotherx — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:14:45 +0000

Wow, me anda my co-workers use the slang “shoot people in the face” to denote playing FPS games like BF2 and BF2142. We say it all the time at work like “So what are you going to do this weekend shoot people in the face?”. We always meant it jokingly because the statement is such a ludicrous over the top thing to say what person could possibly hear this and think anyone saying it was serious about it? Not to mention I work at a company making games, so my company is a little more liberal than most.

I understand sensitivity is important in the workplace and there’s a time and a place for things, but is free speech going to end up becoming something that you can only do in the privacy of your own home? The guy wasn’t making threats, he was kidding around. Last time I checked Americans were allowed to “joke” and be “social” when in the work place. It’s what makes this country great, as opposed to working in a prison for instance, where their freedoms have been taken away because they chose to waive them.

That company should be ashamed of itself.