I start every morning reading the online edition of the New York Times. Most of the time I just browse the headlines and go straight to the editorials. This time, however, I stopped dead in my tracks at one of the headlines. A “conservative preacher” had urged the US administration to assassinate a Cuban leader.
I had to rub my eyes to make sure that I was actually reading what I was.
What can be more audacious than a person getting on TV and ask his government to kill the leader of another country?
I can understand frustration, but a person who has his own TV show always rehearses his lines before going on air. A TV anchor has his lines written out for him, and so such a statement cannot be born out of frustration. Even if it was, it cannot be condoned.
Recently one of the editorials on NYT urged the “shedding of light” on such statements. The rationale was that when such people are caught in the headlight they freeze and usually retract what they said. This proved right. With a huge media coverage for his statements Pat Robertson apologized for his statements the very next day.
It is high time that such preachers of hate are shown up for what they are. Their “proclamations” must be published openly and they must be made to justify the statements. It also gives an opportunity for more levelheaded people to comment on these statements and show them up for what they are. Censorship will not work to put a stop to such mad men. They need to be exposed and stripped naked.
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