Our favorite evangelical newscaster, Pat Robertson, is out helping to teach Americans some history we may have missed. In a broadcast of the 700 Club yesterday, Robertson claimed that the 7.0 Haitian earthquake was a result of the country’s “…pact with the devil…” made in the late 1700s, and that it was a blessing for the people.
One might excuse these comments from a crackpot on the street, but Robertson’s following numbers in the tens of millions. These comments, in addition to numerous other outrageous claims made in the past decade including the assassination call for Hugo Chavez and the destruction of Dover Pennsylvania, begin to tug on the fabric of free speech. The Better Business Bureau even claims that they are “….unable to verify the organization’s compliance…”
Should there be limits on what can be said to a television audience? The First Amendment does guarantee against hate speech, incitement to violence and slander based on US Supreme Court case Miller v. California. Has Robertson gone beyond the free speech line?
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