Censorship is debated a great deal - most agree that there are some materials which should be prohibited, but where exactly the line should be drawn is another matter entirely. Some would ban lots of different things while others would limit censorship to just the bare minimum - images or speech that leads immediately to violence or other crimes. Pat Boone appears to be one of the former.

Writing in The Washington Times, Steve Miller reports:

"I don't think censorship is a bad word, but it has become a bad word because everybody associates it with some kind of restriction on liberty," said Mr. Boone, who is in Washington making the rounds as the national spokesman for the 60-Plus Association, a conservative senior citizen lobby. "But we do know that at some point a line that has to be drawn between one man's liberty and another man's license."

Mr. Boone said that if he were in charge of standards, there would be stringent controls on material. "It must be majority approved ... voluntary ... and self-imposed," he said, clad in a yellow blazer, black slacks, a canary yellow tie and white leather shoes. "Censorship is healthy for any society, and that goes for arts, entertainment, anything. Self-imposed means that the majority of people say that is what we want, and it can be changed if people's attitudes change, which is how a democratic society works."

So.... whatever a majority of society thinks should be banned is exactly what should be banned. Basically, Pat Boone doesn't seem to believe in the First Amendment, which protects speech from majority votes. If a majority votes to ban communist writing, Boone would find that acceptable. If a majority votes to ban liberal writing, Boone would find that acceptable. If a majority votes to ban Pat Boone's music, Boone would find that acceptable.

I'm rather curious what led him to want to dispense with the free speech protections in the First Amendment. I'd be interested in learning why he thinks that a majority vote should be sufficient to eliminate entirely classes of communication and ideas from the marketplace.

Read More:

• Recent Books on Free Speech
• Court Decisions on Free Speech and Censorship