Seth MacFarlane to be keynote speaker at Loyola Marymount University

Seth MacFarlane has been asked to be the keynote speaker for Loyola Marymount University’s First Amendment week, which officially started yesterday.

Of course, with pretty much everything Seth does, there has been some controversy. Here’s what the California Catholic Daily had to say:

“The show ‘Family Guy’ is a vulgar parody of American life. Odd that LMU would choose this guy as keynote at First Amendment Week conference,”

However, I must point out that they actually are supportive of him as an example of how the First Amendment is working.

Here’s more from a member of the LMU faculty:

“Whether you love ‘Family Guy’ or find it completely distasteful, it is hard to make the argument that there is a more important satirical voice out there than the one found in ‘Family Guy,’” expressed Dr. Wayne le Cheminant, a professor of political science at LMU, who said that he loves the show. “While I love ‘Family Guy’ for its laugh-out-loud comedy, I believe that it has a number of important things to say. First, it demands that we re-examine, continually, our biases and prejudices. Second, in watching ‘Family Guy’ one cannot help but realize that our tools for moral judgment, like Peter Griffin’s, are often lacking.”

You can read more about the controversy here.