A Return to 'Fairness', Rep Says Words Are Dangerous

[Confederate Kahanist]

http://conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/1828

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in Congress, said Sunday the deadly shooting in Arizona should get the country thinking about what's acceptable to say publicly and when people should keep their mouths shut.

Clyburn said he thinks vitriol in public discourse led to a 22-year-old suspect opening fire Saturday at an event Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords held for her constituents in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed and 14 others were injured, including Giffords.

The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech, Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling on elected officials and media pundits to use 'better judgment.'

'Free speech is as free speech does,' he said. 'You cannot yell ‘fire' in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.'

Clyburn used as an example a comment made by Sharron Angle, an unsuccessful U.S. senatorial candidate in Nevada, who said the frustrated public may consider turning to 'Second Amendment remedies' for political disputes unless Congress changed course.

Clyburn said the man accused of shooting Giffords did just that.

'He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection,' Clyburn said.

Despite Clyburn's position, law enforcement has not yet revealed any motives in the shooting.

Clyburn has been the most outspoken of the state's congressional delegation on the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, the 1st District Republican, said the Fairness Doctrine would stifle free speech and be harmful to the public, but he would say little on the matter beyond that. Engaging in a partisan conversation is not appropriate now, Scott said, because the focus of Saturday's shooting should remain on prayer for the victims.