Reno Gazette Journal
Editorial
March 9, 2012
Advertisers are free to abandon Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated radio talk show if they don’t want their brands associated with his controversial remarks about a young student who testified in favor of a copay-free mandate for birth control.
Listeners, too, are free to listen or not, as they see fit.
It is troubling, however, that a member of Congress, whose job includes protecting our most basic rights, among them free speech, is trying to convince radio stations to silence one of the most successful radio talkers of the day.
Yet, that’s what Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Democrat who represents Nevada’s 1st Congressional District and is running for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Dean Heller, announced on Thursday: a petition drive demanding that radio giant Clear Channel Communications pull Limbaugh off the air.
Berkley is right to be concerned about Limbaugh’s name-calling. But her attempt to use her important position to remedy it is wrong.
¦¦¦ Make no mistake: You don’t have to agree with Sandra Fluke’s testimony in favor of requiring health-insurance plans to include birth control at no cost to believe that Limbaugh’s attack on her was despicable.
Fluke is a private citizen who was trying to avail herself of every American’s right to petition her government. Fluke was barred from an all-male panel that testified at a hearing on the mandate called by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Democrats held their own hearing to give Fluke and other women a chance to speak.
For her efforts, Fluke was called a “slut” and a “prostitute” by Limbaugh, who proposed she post videos of her sex life on the Internet. Women, and many men, were offended, rightly so.
The political discourse already has been significantly eroded by the personal attacks and name-calling that mark modern campaigns. And the media — especially talk radio and cable TV — certainly have played a role. So have the audiences that have flocked to the loudest and most outrageous commenters from both sides of the political spectrum. Limbaugh’s remarks do nothing to improve that sorry situation.
So Berkley is right, and within her rights, to take issue with Limbaugh, who eventually apologized for his “choice of words.” Launching a petition drive to force him off the air is going too far, however.
Congress has considerable power over the broadcast media, thanks largely to the Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent amendments, as well as via its control of the Federal Communications Commission’s budget. That power must be balanced carefully against the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees all Americans, including some we don’t like, freedom of speech.
Trying to get a radio talker fired crosses the line.
Lee ADDS: Everyone should ask Shelley Berkley, 'Did you ask Nancy Pelosi if you could say the things you said before you got Nancy Pelosi's permission to speak?' After all, Rep Berkley said, 'Nancy Pelosi would have my hide if I did anything on my own!'
No comments:
Post a Comment