Joan Rivers latest rant may have people questioning whether or not she truly understands the First Amendment or has any idea what the Nazi reign of terror was really like.
River, Comedian and Celebrity Gossip Extraordinaire, penned a work of literature entitled “I Hate Everything….. Starting With
Me.” On the back cover of said book she added some “quotes” such as one distorted quote from Marie Antionet saying of Ms. Rivers “Let her Eat S**t”, to name one.
Costco, fearing complaints from its customers for having these messages on back cover, and easily accessible to the millions of children passing through their doors daily, elected not to sell the book. Rivers, presumably facing the loss of sales the mega chain would have undoubtedly brought, elected rather than to offer a g-rated version of the dust jacket to be sold at the retailer, to hold her own brand of protest. After all, a chain store that would sell books written the likes of Paula Deen, bulk toilet paper and condoms certainly would have no right to deny their patrons her wares.
The E! Television Star went into a California Cosco and proceeded to autograph hand out copies of her book that she brought in with her. The customers, delighted at meeting the comedic icon, were predictably pleased with the situation. However, Cosco management was not so elated. They requested of Rivers to vacate the premises immediately.
When unruly star refused to go, Cosco employees called upon the aid of local law enforcement. This proved to be ineffective as when the officers of the peace arrived, they assessed the goings on and decided it wasn’t a situation worthy of wasting tax payers money and went to pursuit of more important matters.
Rivers, then not to be denied her spotlight, handcuffed herself to a Cosco brand shopping cart and proceeded to accuse the warehouse store of violating her first amendment rights. Her message being we are losing our freedoms.
The problem here is Cosco, being a business in the private sector, has the right to offer whatever they choose to their customers (providing that doing so does not violate federal or state laws). In fact one could go so far as to say Rivers was attempting to violate Cosco’s right of free choice.
And… as for the likening of Cosco to the beginnings of Nazi Germany, she couldn’t be farther off. The only way she could draw similarities would be if it were government officials were disallowing the sale.
Perhaps Ms. Rivers underestimated the intelligence of her readers and fans when she hatched this latest bit of controversy to gain publicity.
