• Post and Courier, Tuesday, January 11, 2011 11:46 PM

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 a suspect to open fire 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, says the Charleston Post and Courier.

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.' 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 isn't alone. Prompted by the shootings in Arizona, the National Hispanic Media Coalition plans to press the FCC to act on its longstanding petition on hate speech. NHMC President Alex Nogales said the group would also push the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to update an almost two-decades old report on the effects of hate speech, and would press Congress to make sure NTIA got the money to do so, reports B&C.

NHMC has been urging the FCC to investigate what it sees as the link between extreme rhetoric and hate speech on radio and cable TV and real world violence and hate crimes.

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