I came across the Twitter stream of TMZ honcho Harvey Levin.  He was commenting on the now infamous  Bill O’Reilly visit to The View.

O’Reilly got into a heated debate with several of The View hosts culminating in his statement that “Muslims killed us on 9-11″.   View hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar took offense to the statement and walked off the set, only returning after Mr. O’Reilly apologized. There are those that have stated that what Mr. Reilly had to say amounted to hate speech. There are those who agree with him.  There are those who think the whole thing was staged.

What caught my eye was a particular tweet of Mr. Levin. He was engaging in some 1st amendment commentary with regards to the exchange.  He was making the point that Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg were “free speech hypocrites”

I understand the point Levin was trying to make.  If you champion freedom of expression you should not shy away from it either. I hear that argument all the time on my Facebook page when I censor people for profanity or things that simply piss me off.  They call me a hypocrite. They tell me that I am infringing on their 1st Amendment rights.   I point out that there are no 1st Amendment rights on my Facebook page just as Mr. O’Reilly had no 1st Amendment rights on The View.  I do not view it as hypocritical to have personal standards that are not in line with speech protected by the 1st Amendment.  What’s more, O’Reilly was not censored in any way.  He stated exactly what was on his mind. No one “bleeped him”.   If we are going to talk free speech, it sounds to me like he was allowed to exercise his.  If we are going to make 1st Amendment analogies,  there is nothing I am aware of in the Constitution that mandates that we not get offended at distasteful speech whether it is protected or not.

The 1st Amendment protects 99 percent of hate speech that the majority of us would rather not hear.  The fact that we would rather not hear it and remove ourselves from earshot is not hypocrisy.  That is civilized society.  I will champion someone’s right to stand on a public sidewalk and call me a kike. If he does it in my living room I am going to ask him to leave. If he does it at my favorite Starbucks I am going to ask management to ask him to leave.

When I confronted the Westboro Baptist Church during one of their visits to Dallas, I argued with the police for their right to be on a public sidewalk in front of a hotel when the hotel was trying to move them to the other side of the street.  That does not mean I approve of their message.  For Mr. Levin to imply that there is hypocrisy there again, is simply ignorant of 1st Amendment principals.  For Whoopi Goldberg and  Joy Behar to walk out in a huff may have been childish, and even planned entertainment in the vein of what their show is about  but it was not hypocritical.

So what really bothered me about Levin’s tweet?  It bothered me that it was a generalization that gave the impression there were 1st Amendment principals at stake in allowing Bill O’Reilly to state his point of view unfettered(which he in fact did).  That is simply not true on any level. It bothers me that these misrepresentations of “free speech” are all to common in our society and Levin is not the 1st media figure to “flub the 1st”.  Remember when Dr. Laura stated that she had left her popular talk who to “reclaim her 1st Amendment rights?  The bad news for Dr. Laura is that she had no 1st Amendment rights on her talk show.

Since Mr. Levin was unable to get it right I will clear it up for him. The 1st Amendment only applies to government attempts to restrict speech. It does not apply to talk shows unless it’s his position that The View is secretly funded by the FCC.  There is also no obligation that our own personal thermometers of acceptable rhetoric comply with the 1st Amendment. Mine does not. I would be shocked if  Mr. Levin’s did.

So I came across this “anti-dating” web site called DontDateHimGirl.com

It is a site for scorned women to post about guys that have cheated on them, who are married, lied to them, etc. I admit I first went to the site to see if I was on it! Not that I think I am a liar or cheater. I think the general consensus would be that I am a nice guy (with some dissenters am sure) BUT in 7 out of 10 relationships that end for any reason, someone is going to be pissed and find a justification to blame the other person to bolster their self-worth. The next things you know either your photo is up on Don’t Date Him or you’re accosted by a camera crew from the television show CHEATERS in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Why is it you never see the Cheaters camera crew waiting outside of Nordstrom’s or Neiman Marcus??

I of course went straight to the Dallas, Texas listings. In my single career in Dallas, I have known many, 30k millionaires, Mack daddies, serial daters, cheaters, schmoozer’s losers, boozers, druggers, muggers etc. There definitely was an entertainment value to seeing if any of them were listed on the site…. I know some guys that I would list myself just to protect unsuspecting female Dallasites…… Here are some of the examples of what I found in the Dallas listings….

• 1. Joseph L. Austin “Joe”- “Drives a Mercedes and still lives at home with his parents and sister. Not marriage or boyfriend material”

There are a ton of listing complaining that a particular guy had given a girl herpes or some other STD. Others complaining of being married, two timing, and just being an asshole in general

In any event, not that I expected to be but I am proud to say that I my mug was not on the website. Of course since they do not verify anything, I could claim to be women and put up negative posts about all the guys I know in town just to eliminate the competition. I’m out on the town, see a guy talking to a girl I like, get that guy’s name, throw it up on Don’t Date Him, tell the girl he is up there and the next thing you know he can’t even pay for a date. Those would be some serious “guerilla dating” tactics but I wouldn’t put it past guys or girls in this town or in any other town for that matter.

I then put my lawyer’s hat on and thought about it from that perspective. There is already case law out there about posting defamatory remarks on web sites and bulletin boards but I wonder if Don’t Date Him is bringing in any click-through advertiser dollars. I would certainly argue that if they put my photo up, negative comments and all, they are using my likeness to make money without my permission and I want a piece of the pie!

As to the posts themselves, you can check it out for yourselves and I will probably get some flak for this but the majority of hard luck guy stories said just as much about the sheer stupidity, immaturity and gullibility of the women involved as it did about the alleged sliminess of the guys.

The owner of the site was in fact sued by Pittsburgh Attorney Todd Hollis with regards to posts about him on the site by a couple different women, one of the posts being that he allegedly carried a sexually transmitted disease. He denies that he does. The owner of the site claimed that she should not be liable for the posts of others. The lawsuit has since been dismissed based on improper venue. That has not stopped the aggrieved men from firing salvos. There is actually a web site out there trying to collect victims for class action. Good luck with all that or in other words….GET A LIFE!

When a defamatory remark is posted on an internet web site, you have basically three possible parties who can be potentially sued 1. The person who posted the remark; 2) the owner of the web site; and 3) the Internet Service Provider (ISP) who hosts the web site. The ISP issue is easy. They are for the most post immune from suits relating to the posting of defamatory remarks on web sites they host.

So when Internet America or Southwestern Bell hosts the web site “BrianCubansaScumbag.com”, It is a web site for everyone who hates Brian Cuban to post nasty things about him. So assuming there were nasty, defamatory posts about me on this site, I cannot sue Internet America or Southwestern Bell. This protection to an ISP is generally provided under Title 47 of the U.S. Code

So we know we cannot sue the ISP, what about the person running the web site? All he did was put up the site. He did not post any defamatory comments…. He is probably also protected. In 1996 Congress passed the Communications Decency Act, part of which has been stuck down but for the most part is still intact. This Act could in fact provide protection to the owner of the site. Where issues arise is when the site is made aware of defamatory comments and fails to remove them.

What’s the bottom line?

Quit having affairs and lying to women and use a condom!

I know for many guy and women in this town that is like asking them to walk on water or actually be a responsible adult so in the alternative “Reputation Endangered” men are going to probably have to track down the girls who put up the posts if they want to collect. My reaction to that? If you put as much energy into being a productive member of society as you do scamming women, our little corner of Texas would be a much better place to live and socialize…. You know who you are…..

What is my general “dating take” on this? My take is more on the sad state of human affairs when we are going to sites like this to be entertained off the misery, inadequacy and humiliation of others. I am talking about myself here because I went to the site! I am proud to say however that I have not read the obituaries in a while…….But hey, turn to any television station for your dose of reality television and you will get the same thing. For that matter go to CNN, TMZ, or Perez-Hilton for the same thing…..That’s Entertainment Baby! Gag!!!!

If your date is going out with nine other women, really works at Jack in the Box and drives a Pinto and he gave you herpes ,spend more time examining your mate selection process and the due diligence and your attitudes on safe-sex , less time trying to feel better about yourself by posting goofy shit on idiotic web sites….

I don’t expect to see my name up there but if I ever do, they will hear from my attorneys not to take my picture down as everyone is entitled to their opinion but to get my cut of the profits…….

I admit that I have become obsessed with the trials and tribulations of Britney Spears. While I despise everything TMZ.com stands for, I have become a closet “TMZr” just to check out what disaster or embarrassment she is into on any given day. I have even seen my brother Mark Cuban on their site now and then. He however always takes it in stride when the “paps” whoop on him. He even has some fun with them. His “faux” cocaine off the cell phone impression was hilarious and can be seen on their site…

It is however a sad statement of what I use some of my free time and I would be the first to admit that I despise everything TMZ stand for…. Now that I think about it, TMZ really doesn’t stand for anything… It is a completely content empty intrusion into the lives of others. Yet there I am daily….. Shame on Brian….. I admit that those who go to this site contribute to the whose of those in the public eye who would like their private life to stay their own to some degree or who simply don’t want to be harassed EVERY SINGLE TIME they step out of their homes…. Britney certainly falls into that category…

There should be a self help group for those who are addicted to TMZ…… I would raise my hand and state…. “My name is Brian and I am addicted to the misery of others”… … Hello Brian…..

I have asked myself why I have become addicted to Britney’s daily doogles…… I really don’t have a secret crush on her or anything…. The only explanation I can think of is that I got to “hang out” with her and her posse totally by accident when she was celebrating her 21^st birthday in NYC many years ago….

I was in NYC on business trip. After arriving my plans were cancelled at the last second. I called a friend of mine, Marc Roberts who used to be a sports agent in NYC and was living in Miami. He set me up with this very interesting Jamaican guy named Unik who at that time was a well known party planner in NYC and currently owns a bar called PM In the garment district. (It apparently closed in January of this year).

Uniks as it so happens had been asked to set up a last minute party for Britney’s 21^st and took me a long as his guest. We started out at some restaurant sitting right next to George Clooney who was there with a few of his buddies.

After about 3 hours of drinking, we all stumbled over to this nightclub called Suite 16 Including George, and drank while we waited for Britney…… and we drank while we waited for Britney….. and we drank while we waited for Britney….

Britney finally shows up at about 5 in the morning. By that time the only train wreck in the room was me after drinking since 8 pm……. I even had a 8 am flight back to Dallas……

Britney comes in surrounded by the 3 biggest guys I have ever seen…. This was before it was in style for celebrities to have wiry ex-Israeli Secret Service (Mosad) as bodyguards. These were just huge bouncer type dudes…. They all gravitate to a roped off table where Justin Timberlake was already sitting with some friends. Britney did not appear happy he was there..…. She clearly didn’t want him there and threw a fit that would make even her current day antics seem tame. It got a great write up in the NY Post…… After watching her try to scratch Justin’s eyes out with nasty looks until he booked I decided the better part of valor was to get my stuff and get to the airport still drunk….

So ended my evening with Britney Spears. I even left my coat at the club…. Anyone have Justin’s address so I can get it back??