Editorials

On Sunday, a gunman shot up Knoxville's Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, killing two worshipers and injuring a half-dozen more.

Jim David Adkisson, the man police are charging in the shooting, was on a mission. Authorities say he picked the Knoxville congregation "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets."

His views line up with the nasty, dehumanizing invective found on countless outlets, including talk radio, Fox News and conservative Web sites.

On Monday, police reported that a search of Adkisson's residence revealed three book titles: The O'Reilly Factor by Bill O'Reilly, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder by Michael Savage, and Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism by Sean Hannity.

All three are prominent right-wing radio talkers; O'Reilly and Hannity appear on the radio in addition to shows on Fox News. Similarly, all three employ war-like rhetoric in waging their ideological battles against those who do not toe the conservative line. All put opponents into a corner with nicknames such as "pinhead," "loon" and "moron."

Hannity's books equate liberals with terrorists and despots. Needless to point out, Savage equates liberalism with mental illness.

On the day police were announcing his book was in the hands of a deranged man, O'Reilly came forth with a typical comment on Fox News. "The far left," O'Reilly said, "wants open border anarchy and condemns the feds for enforcing immigration law, even though it protects aliens from brutal employers. That's how extreme the far left movement is."

Clearly, one person took all this ugly language seriously enough to take up arms.

Clearly, most listeners to this unedifying speech will not be moved to take violent action.

Clearly, the First Amendment allows these talkshow hosts to spout off, just as it allows the same for their counterparts on the left side of the spectrum.

The lesson is broadcast outlets and their employers have a responsibility. It's the duty of media conglomerates that spread their hosts' hatred across the nation to exercise restraint, good taste and fairness.

For several decades the Fairness Doctrine ruled broadcasters of controversial material. The unfair defamation of people and ideas can be so easily spread through radio and TV that it was a duty to provide equal time to other viewpoints. Violators were subject to the FCC, the overseer of the peoples' airwaves.

With the rules' disappearance during the Reagan administration, the airwaves became coarser, and hosts willing to devalue the humanity of opponents sprang up across the country.

Broadcasters who deal in hate speech would be wise to take Sunday's shootings as a lesson. With a powerful microphone comes great responsibility.