The cost of free political discourse

Let's start with the obvious: Bill O'Reilly and others (Ann Coulter comes to mind) have been irresponsible, even dangerous in their invective against the late Dr. George Tiller.

[But I will not exempt the late Dr. from legitimate and reasonsed criticism of his actions: victimhood does not equal sainthood.]

The problem for those who would hold O'Reilly accountable is that the same strictures they'd think about applying would have prevented this, this, or even this [which is all that's left of this] from appearing.

Invoking the power of the State in any guise to stifle political discourse--no matter how nauseous--is anathema to the American Constitutional system of government.

And in the words of Anonone:

Violence comes more often from the oppression of speech rather than the free exercise of it.

A free society entails risks. A society without risk is not free. Tough questions like this are where you come down on the side of freedom or security as paramount.

Comments

Mark H said…

Thanks for the links. Make one think

June 2, 2009 at 10:06 PM

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