Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sikhs against Jay Leno
In a recent opening monologue, Jay Leno made a joke towards GOP candidate Mitt Romney. He showed a clip of the Golden Temple of Amritsar (a holy shrine to the Sikh’s) and made it appear to be Romney’s summer home. An Indian-American man, Randeep Dhillon, was angered by the joke and filed a lawsuit in California for libel. He argued that the joke “‘hurt the sentiments of all Sikh people in addition to the plaintiff.’” The lawsuit went on to argue that by making a joke towards the Sikh’s holy temple, Leno exposed all Sikh’s to mockery and hatred and that the joke was “racist and derogatory.” NBC, the channel that broadcasts The Tonight Show, has also been requested by other members of the Sikh community for action against the comments made by Leno.
Primarily, this is a case about slander and freedom of speech. One man was offended by the words of another said on national TV. However, the plaintiff believed he had a case against Leno largely because his religion was mocked in his opinion. This suit, if it goes further in the justice process, will raise the questions of 1) if a religion is mocked, do the followers of that religion have the right to sue and 2) does that trump freedom of speech in the United States? If “‘the sentiments of all Sikh people’” are hurt, does that have more precedence that the constitutional right of free speech?
As mentioned above and in the article, America has the constitutional right to free speech. Anyone who watches The Tonight Show is aware that Leno’s opening monologue is filled with jokes. While there may be some truth to what he says during the monologue (before showing the temple as Romney’s home, two other actual homes of GOP candidates were shown), there is always a punch line at the end. The joke Leno made was not directed at the Sikh religion, but towards Romney. The intent of the joke was to make fun of how Romney is rich. While I was aware of the Sikh religion, I did not recognize the gold temple as a holy site to the Sikh’s, which I believe is the same for many Americans watching Leno’s opening monologue. Leno could have shown a clip of Buckingham Palace instead of the temple and send the same message about Romney, and the British monarch would likely not have filed suit against Leno. Hypothetically, if this case where to not be thrown out and Dhillon won, the implications of the case would mean that shows like South Park, an equal opportunity offender, and Family Guy could be sued on a regular basis. If the feelings of a religious group were superior to freedom of speech, the government would be favoring religion. While that is not establishing religion or preventing the free exercise of religion, it would be ignoring another very important constitutional freedom Americans have.
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