Background checks for journalists

[Mark2010]

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh suggests journalists are "dangerous" and should be required to pass a background check and mental health screening before being allowed to broadcast or publish.

"I think we ought to do to the first amendment practitioners what they want to do to the second amendment practitioners. We ought to do background checks on these people to see which of them are mentally ill and if they are, deny them access to the public airwaves and the newspapers as so-called news reporters or journalists because they’re dangerous. They are dangerous to the republic."

He added, "I don't know folks, I'm just talking out loud. These are just a great example of the constant and never-ending explosions taking place in my fertile brain."


Makes me wonder if Mr. Limbaugh would successfully pass a mental health check. Sometimes, he strikes me as someone about to come unglued.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/rush-limbaugh-background-checks-media-mental-illness_n_2718908.html

 

[Starman]

Go right ahead, Flushboy.

 

[dixiehack]

"I don't know folks, I'm just talking out loud.

In a just world, this goes on the headstone.

 

[YankeeFan]

I didn't listen today, but...

Does it occur to anyone that he was trying to make a point regarding the restrictions people want to put on the right of people to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights?

 

[Mark2010]

Oh, yeah. Lame attempt. Journalists aren't killing people.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Would taking painkiller in such quantities that it destroys your hearing be grounds for losing your right to broadcast?

How about being a sex tourist?

 

[Riptide]

When journalists are outlawed, only outlaws will have journalists.

 

[Bradley Guire]

You can have my notepad and pen when you pry them out of my cold, dead hand.

 

[Bubbler]

Journalists don't kill people ...

 

[old_tony]

Would taking painkiller in such quantities that it destroys your hearing be grounds for losing your right to broadcast?

How about being a sex tourist?

What's Bob Menendez got to do with this?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I didn't listen today, but...

Does it occur to anyone that he was trying to make a point regarding the restrictions people want to put on the right of people to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights?

No amendment is absolute.

Suppose I decide to start a pirate radio station, and I decide to use the frequency of the station that broadcasts Rush? And my station interferes with Rush's program. The government would crack down on me, right? Even though they would be restricting my First Amendment right to free speech.

 

[Rhody31]

Wouldn't this guy have failed every drug test except the Colombian one?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

"I don't know folks, I'm just talking out loud.[/quote]

As opposed to talking to himself?

 

[deskslave]

I didn't listen today, but...

Does it occur to anyone that he was trying to make a point regarding the restrictions people want to put on the right of people to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights?

No amendment is absolute.

Suppose I decide to start a pirate radio station, and I decide to use the frequency of the station that broadcasts Rush? And my station interferes with Rush's program. The government would crack down on me, right? Even though they would be restricting my First Amendment right to free speech.

Only if they cracked down on you because of the content of your speech, which would not be the case. They'd be cracking down on you because the government regulates the airwaves, which are necessarily limited in capacity.

 

[Azrael]

Is the part about "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State . . ." written in invisible ink?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I didn't listen today, but...

Does it occur to anyone that he was trying to make a point regarding the restrictions people want to put on the right of people to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights?

No amendment is absolute.

Suppose I decide to start a pirate radio station, and I decide to use the frequency of the station that broadcasts Rush? And my station interferes with Rush's program. The government would crack down on me, right? Even though they would be restricting my First Amendment right to free speech.

Only if they cracked down on you because of the content of your speech, which would not be the case. They'd be cracking down on you because the government regulates the airwaves, which are necessarily limited in capacity.

Which means there's a precedent for the government regulating a right. Only, instead of a finite resource such as radio airwaves, it's an infinite resource of the number and type of guns. They can say that it's a necessity to limit that resource to own a type of gun for the safety of its citizens.

 

[BenPoquette]

Rush comes up with some pretty stupid stuff.

That being said, I don't understand why Second Amendment advocates aren't telling the truth about why they are against gun control...that an armed society is the best insurance against a tyrannical government. That's why I am pro-gun. Always have been...not just before a black mooslem (TM Starman) got into office.

 

[Azrael]

Which "tyrannical government" are we talking about? Your village? Town? City? County? State? Federal?

How "armed" do you actually want society to be? Every family has a shotgun? Rifle? Handgun? Or is every family entitled to a missile system?

 

[dixiehack]

Which "tyrannical government" are we talking about? Your village? Town? City? County? State? Federal?

HOA.

 

[deskslave]

Rush comes up with some pretty stupid stuff.

That being said, I don't understand why Second Amendment advocates aren't telling the truth about why they are against gun control...that an armed society is the best insurance against a tyrannical government. That's why I am pro-gun. Always have been...not just before a black mooslem (TM Starman) got into office.

Well, they could say that, but it wouldn't be the truth. And that much is obvious from the constant euphemistic undercurrent to the discussions here. "Law-abiding citizens" being the chief euphemism used.