Voight rebuts 'hate speech' tag

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Jennifer Harper

Free speech got a loud boost from Hollywood on Wednesday. Jon Voight has responded to accusations from a critic sympathetic to the American Communist Party, who said the actor had used hate speech and threatened the well-being of President Obama during a recent appearance before Republicans in Washington.

Mr. Voight denied both charges, saying that those who speak out against the Obama administration are "demonized" and "attacked," often with hate speech.

The Academy Award winner's speech before the National Republican Congressional Committee on June 7 was both a political and cultural moment. As a paragon of a new Hollywood conservatism, Mr. Voight spoke bluntly of Republican strategies for 2012 and what he sees as the shortcomings of the Obama administration.

Yet the actor also ignited a public discussion about bitter partisan rivalries and what constitutes threatening language.

Toward the end of his speech, Mr. Voight lauded a list of 23 high-profile Republicans, saying "Let's give thanks to them for staying on course to bring an end to this false prophet, Obama."

The phrase "bring an end" was quickly caught in the echo chamber of news reports and Op-Eds in the aftermath, framed out of context.

Mr. Voight's words brought criticisms from the New York Times, activists and bloggers. But they particularly troubled Teresa Albano, editor of the People's Weekly World -- a Chicago-based publication sympathetic to the Communist Party.

"I don't want to equate what Jon Voight said as expressing a conservative opinion on politics. It went way beyond that. He made a threat against the president of the United States to a crowd at a GOP fundraiser and got a good response from the Senate minority leader and other powerful people. And that is scary," Ms. Albano, editor of the publication, said at the time.

An editorial also said his speech was a form of "home-grown terrorism."

Mr. Voight did not take the characterization lightly.