A day later, Trainor said the ban would apply only to state employees within the governor’s control, and would not apply in a public health emergency or snowstorm, for example. In fact, EMA spokesman Steve Kass, a former talk-show host, went on the “Buddy Cianci Show” Tuesday, with the administration’s approval, with “a public safety message about the impending storm.”
By Katherine Gregg and TOM MOONEY
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — With his talk-radio avoidance policy making the national news and rating the second-highest placed headline on the Drudge Report at one point on Wednesday, Governor Chafee is defending his decision.
In an interview Wednesday, Chafee denied speculation that the policy had anything to do with the harsh criticism that some of the state’s conservative talk-show hosts had been flinging his way in the wake of his move to rescind his predecessor’s executive order on illegal immigration.
“We just want to focus on the job at hand, getting the economy rolling again, and we can’t be diverted with all the nonsense on talk radio,” he told a reporter at the state Emergency Management Agency headquarters after the latest briefing on the snowstorm.
Chafee spokesman Michael Trainor said the policy had been under discussion for some time. But it caught national attention after the shootings last week at a meet-the-constituents event at a shopping center in Arizona that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. Some commentators suggested that the massacre was a symptom of the “climate of hate” stoked by conservative, right-wing radio programming.
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Tags: 1st Amendment, Bill of Rights, Constitution, First Amendment, Lincoln Chafee, Media, News Item, Rhode Island
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