Nightly News   |  February 22, 2012

No need to ‘curtail free speech’

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Jack Jacobs, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, weighs in on the Stolen Valor Act.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> we get to put this question to an actual recipient of the medal of honor . our military analyst retired army colonel jack jacobs . i know there are 83 recipients alive. does it not diminish the medal placed around your neck by president nixon when anybody can claim to have the same medal?

>> lying about receiving an award for valor is certainly pathetic, to say the least. there is a certain amount of honor that comes with any award for valor, but i don't think either the medal or a recipient is so fragile that we have to curtail free speech , which is a linchpin of our democracy, we have to curtail free speech in order to protect either the award or the individual receiving it.

>> an interesting view of this from a recipient. jack, colonel jacobs, thank you.