Sarah Palin made a call to conscious Wednesday
for those who would manufacture "a blood libel"
for last weekend's Arizona shooting, saying "acts
of monstrous brutality ... begin and end with the
criminals who commit them, not collectively"
with Americans exercising their constitutional
freedoms.
The former Republican vice-presidential
candidate, the target of many knee-jerk
pontificators ascribing motive to Jared Lee
Loughner, the gunman in the Tuscon attack that
killed six and injured 14 others, had been silent
since shortly after the Saturday shooting when
she issued a two-line statement offering her
prayers for the families and victims.
But Palin's name -- and those of others, including
Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle -- had
been central in the early accusations over what
spurred the shooting. Liberal media pundits
assigned blame by citing Palin's political action
committee's website, which showed crosshairs
on districts that it was targeting in the November
midterm, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the
believed target of the gunman who was
wounded in the shooting.
Others said Angle's comments on the campaign
trail also incited violence. The debate about heated
political rhetoric ratcheted up so quickly and
vigorously -- even before Loughner had been
identified as the alleged shooter -- some
Democratic lawmakers called for curbs on free
speech.
In a Facebook posting issued Wednesday
morning, Palin lamented the "irresponsible
statements" of those casting blame on political
figures.
"If you don't like a person's vision for the
country, you're free to debate that vision. If you
don't like their ideas, you're free to propose better
ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy
unfolding, journalists and pundits should not
manufacture a blood libel that serves only to
incite the very hatred and violence they purport
to condemn. That is reprehensible," Palin said.
She added that claims that the political rhetoric is
somehow more heated today than ever before
seem unfounded, noting that "back in those 'calm
days'" of the Republic, political differences were
occasionally settled with "dueling pistols."
But even as Palin decried the accusations, some
lawmakers federal regulations are needed to stop
heated speech.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., on Monday
referenced a comment by Angle in calling for a
change in the nation's political dialogue -- by will
or by law.
"'Don't retreat, reload.' Someone in Nevada
saying we may need to use Second Amendment
remedies. There's only one way to read this,"
Slaughter said.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., told Fox News that
Angle "talked about people rising up and taking
over the government by force, using their guns.
She was very explicit."
Sherman said that even if language used by
Angle and her supporters hadn't incited the
shootings in Arizona, eventually it will lead to
violence.
"I'm saying if you have a heart attack, stop
smoking, not because nicotine may or may not
have caused your last heart attack, you'll never
know, but it's going to cause the next one,"
Sherman said. "And if we continue to bring into
the mainstream and treat as civil those who call
for violence and disruption and assassination and
revolution and insurrection, then whether that
caused what happened in Tucson or not, it will
cause the next tragedy."
Angle defended herself in a statement released
late Tuesday.
"Expanding the context of the attack to blame and
to infringe upon the people's constitutional
liberties is both dangerous and ignorant. The
irresponsible assignment of blame to me, Sarah
Palin or the Tea Party movement by
commentators and elected officials puts all who
gather to redress grievances in danger," Angle
said.
"Finger-pointing towards political figures is an
audience-rating game and contradicts the facts as
they are known," Angle added. "I have
consistently called for reasonable political dialogue
on policy issues to encourage civil political
education and debate. Inappropriately attributing
blame of a singular tragedy to achieve a political
agenda is contrary to civil discourse, and is a
media ploy to which I refuse to belong."
In the wake of the shooting, the National Hispanic
Media Coalition used the incident to reiterate its call
for the FCC to update its definitions of hate speech
in media. It also asked the FCC to "examine the
extent and effects of hate speech in media, and
non-regulatory options for counteracting the
violence that extreme rhetoric breeds."
Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa., said he has no
knowledge about what motivated Loughner to
attack Giffords and the others, but he still wants
legislation that bans the use of certain imagery
when talking about congressional targets.
"I want to eliminate what may have been," Brady
told Fox News. "I'm not a psychologist ... All I'm
saying is you can't put a bullseye or a crosshair
on a member of Congress."
And on Tuesday, Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.,
was quoted in the Oregon Statesman-Journal
saying he blamed conservative media
personalities like Fox News' Glenn Beck and radio
host Rush Limbaugh.
"I hold them personally responsible. I don't know
how they can sleep at night after this," Schrader
said.
Loughner, the accused gunman with no
discernible connection to American political
discourse, has not stated why he allegedly shot
20 people in the assault at a Tucson Safeway
grocery store. The Wall Street Journal reported
Wednesday that the community college student
who had been suspended last October had
frequented gaming websites seeking answers to
questions about why he couldn't find a job or get
a girlfriend.
More than a decade ago, lawmakers like Sen. Joe
Lieberman, D-Conn., warned that violence in
movies and video games could cause violence in
life. But graphic imagery and heated rhetoric
moved to the political theater long before that.
Several recent examples have been offered from
both sides of the aisle, including President
Obama's quoting from the film "The
Untouchables" in which appears the statement, "If
they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun."
And even before movie references, crosshairs
and bullseyes, "battlefields" were drawn across
campaign and policy landscapes. President
Lyndon Johnson's State of the Union speech
called for a figurative "War on Poverty," a
precursor to the Reagan administration's equally
figurative "War on Drugs."
Slaughter said that while she's not up to speed on
current regulations, the Federal Communications
Commission should work to sanction broadcasts
that could incite people to violence.
"No one owns the airwaves," Slaughter said,
"They are owned by the people."
If lawmakers were to seek remedies to quiet
distasteful discussion, the so-called Fairness
Doctrine is at the top of lists inspiring supporters
and alarming opponents.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., told National Public
Radio said he "came up in a time that the Fairness
Doctrine did not allow media outlets to say things
about a candidate or a person in public office
without giving that person equal time to respond.
And I really believe that everybody needs to take
a look at where we are pushing things, and may
need to take a serious step back and evaluate
what's going on here."
But not everyone may be on board with a hasty
turn to bottling up dissenting voices. Delivering a
speech Tuesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said
media have the power to inspire, motivate and
inform. "But they also have the power to inflame
and incite. The seething rhetoric has gone too
far."
However, Leahy added, "In a free society, the
society that we Americans must always want our
country to be, the government should not and
must not restrain free expression."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also suggested
Tuesday in a speech at the Center for American
Progress that the blame game has no winner.
"The big question wasn't whose rhetoric was
right or wrong, but whether our political
conversation was worthy of the confidence and
trust of the American people," he said
Source: Http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/11/democrats-single-sharron-angle-calling-limits-speech/
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