Finally, a good news story from the censorship front.
Douglas County’s attempt to muzzle press hits buzz saw of opposition
Once upon a time in a place called Alexandria an official decreed that news must be submitted to the government for approval before being disseminated.
The official was not Alexander the Great but rather a county administrator, Bill Schalow. The place was not the Great’s namesake on the Nile but rather Alexandria, Minn. The date was March 6, 2006 — last Monday.
By Friday, Douglas County Coordinator Schalow’s new “Public Relations/Communications Protocol,” which required the local paper to submit its stories about the county for fact-checking or be cut off from top county officials, was ancient history.
“If you willfully ignore this request,” it concluded, “or fail to cooperate and comply without contacting me first regarding your concerns, your actions could result in a total system ‘gag’ and limit your interaction with the county to the coordinator’s office only.”
This guy is squared away next to my Mayor, his list of misdeeds even include having a paperboy arrested for not telling him who was getting the paper, and making his own home made police car.
I am amazed that this guy still has a job. If he didn’t realize that his actions were illegal then he is just too friggen stupid to be the county “coordinator”.
Let’s be reasonable here… the actions taken by the Mayor was stupid, but not necessarily illegal. As long as the Mayor wasn’t advocating prior restraint on stories, it should be OK.
If I want to cover the US Presidency, can I get into press conferences? No. If the VP gives an interview to Fox News, does he have to give an interview to CNN? No.
My point is that equal access to politicians is not a right. Equal access to other government services and documents is a right.
In this case, the press screamed (using their rights), and a policy was changed.
In my opinion, the American constitutional system working at its finest.
yeah…here he is.
–El
William Schalow
Coordinator
Douglas County
305 8th Ave. W
Alexandria, MN 56308
Phone: 320-762-3898, Fax: 320-762-2389
bill.schalow@mail.co.douglas.mn.us
Looks like he has a bush picture right next to his one of Jesus. After all he’s just doing what bush is.
The common thread here is that there are a lot of politicians and bureaucrats, regardless of affiliation that have either a lot to hide already, or anticipate the opportunity to seal a lot in the coming years. Now that they see the “president” getting away with lying, his cronies getting away with stealing etc, they want a piece of the pie.
Steve:
Prior restraint means the author can’t publish the article. I read NOTHING about stopping the author from publishing.
I think the analogies with facist states is thus a little overblown.
Something tells me he supports President Bush.
Lou
Douglas County Coordinator Schalow’s new “Public Relations/Communications Protocol,” which required the local paper to submit its stories about the county for fact-checking or be cut off from top county officials…
“If you willfully ignore this request,” it concluded, “or fail to cooperate and comply without contacting me first regarding your concerns, your actions could result in a total system ‘gag’ and limit your interaction with the county to the coordinator’s office only.”
By threatening an outcome when the person threatening is in a position or appears to be in a position to follow through on the threat sure sounds like prior restraint to me. Of course we all know that this wouldn’t stand up to challenge, but the intended intimidation factor makes the whole county look bad. The guy should be fired for cause as soon as possible.