However, his other 169 MySpace friends did NOT link to porn

As one commenter noted, this is just one more reason Florida should be kicked out of the Union.

From Wired:

"School Cop Investigated for Porn Link on Friend's MySpace Profile

"In the goofiest waste of law enforcement time we've seen in weeks, an on-campus police officer for a Florida middle school is facing a criminal investigation over his MySpace account. Why? It turns out one of the people on his friends list had a link on his or her profile to an internet porn site.

"Or, as the St. Peterburg Times puts it, "kids could navigate from Officer John's page on the social networking site to 'Amateur Match Free Sex' in just three clicks.""

Via Doc Searls

    Technorati : gulf middle school, john nohejl, new port richey

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 02:02pm in Bizarre but Expected, Civil Liberty, Law, Social Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

Citizen journalism not welcome in France?

And have the French lost their minds? You commit a crime if you, a citizen, film a violent crime. "Well, yes sir, officer.... I saw the robbery, the shooting, the getaway car. Can't remember the plate number. I could have had it on my camera, but I didn't want to go to jail."

Another hat top to Fisher.

Technorati : citizen journalism, crime, french justice, sarkozy

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:32pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Swedish Radio raps journalist for private blogging

If you work for Swedish State Radio (Sveriges Radio), you'd best not criticize the Swedish government on your personal blog. And if you post anything from YouTube, be ready for one pissed off boss.

That's the message being sent George Wood, author of the pleasant Notes from Sweden blog and an employee of Sveriges Radio.

In Notes from Sweden, Wood provides a service the Swedish Foreign Ministry should be eternally grateful for. In well-written, unsnarky, varied posts, Wood shows the world that Sweden is not the freezing, windy, overtaxed, overregulated backwater you might, in fact, believe it to be. He applauds Swedish innovations in energy, looks into its space program, helpfully warns against phishing and plugs local business. And that's just in the last couple of weeks. I say again, without an atom of hyperbole, the Swedes should genuinely be grateful for this guy.

Except nothing can change the fact that Sweden is a freezing, windy, overtaxed and overregulated backwater. How do I know? Well, when Wood had the temerity to mildly criticize the Swedish government-- this is like an American bitching about Congress -- his boss, Anne Sseruwagi, dropped down on him like a puma out of a tree. You see, if you work for Swedish State Radio, you are apparently not allowed to express political opinions publicly. Read that again, and let it sink in. For that -- and featuring YouTube clips on his blog -- he got called onto the carpet. And was lucky to keep his job.

From the Swedish press reports, it appears Wood will be able to continue blogging, at least until the bureaucrats at Swedish State Radio get their minds around the concept of private bloggers. I hope they will come up with an enlightened blogging policy, but Wood's experience indicates they might not have the mindset for it.

Technorati : anne sseruwagi, citizen journalism, george wood, notes from sweden, sveriges radio, swedish radio

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:43pm in Civil Liberty, Journalism | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

What? No YouTube from the Turkmenistani women's wrestling team locker room?

Kevin Dugan brings the dreary news that the International Olympic Committee is considering banning athlete blogs.

I think that's going to put a crimp on the fun of the 2008 Summer Games, and not just for the reason -- a damned good one -- noted in the headline

The 2008 Olympics are to be held in Beijing, capital of one of the few countries you cannot just ignore (unlike, pretty much, San Marino). A country whose social and economic policies have been an abject failure since.... well, since forever. A country where, if the government is feeling confident, only jails dissident writers, journalists and bloggers. If it's feeling twitchy, though, it shoots them through the base of the skull. Oh, and China shoots uppity students, too.

"Slum run by thugs" pretty much sums up the place. Never has so little been accomplished by so many -- because they have been held back by so few.

I've been hoping the 2008 Olympics -- with the focused attention of the world's journalists, athletes, celebrities, commentators, and bloggers -- would help the Chinese government broaden themselves. But the IOC -- always terrified of offending host nations and television networks -- seems ready to put the lock-down on athletes with something to say. How they are going to accomplish this is beyond me -- are they going to somehow search MySpace, YouTube and the entire blogosphere for offenders? Maybe they should just give up -- it wouldn't do us or China one bit of harm.

Hat tip to Todd And....

Technorati : beijing, citizen journalists, ioc, kevin dugan, olympics, totalitarian regimes

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:38pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1)

I wonder how UCLA is going to cover this PR problem?

UCLA student gets tasered for not carrying his university ID... then the cops threaten to taser other students who ask for their badge numbers.

On YouTube. But watch it on an empty stomach. You'll watch the cops taser him once -- this can render the victim powerless to walk for 5 to 15 minutes -- then taser him a few more times for not getting up.

There's no doubt the guy was a loudmouth. But seeing him get tasered over and over during a six minute period has got to give you pause for thought. For not having an ID card in the college library? I'm sure that's a major security risk right up there with checking the containers at Long Beach.

Via Declan at Politech, whose article says in part (about taser-happy cops):

"They have been used against unruly schoolchildren... and people who
argue with police or fail to comply immediately with a command. Cases
described in this report include the stunning of a 15-year-old
schoolgirl in Florida, following a dispute on a bus, and a 13- year-old
girl in Arizona, who threw a book in a public library."

I'll just note here for the record that any cop who tasered my daughter would have to be packing a lot more heat when I caught up with him.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:55pm in Civil Liberty, Is Tedious in the House?, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3)

Further evidence the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to kids

I don't know about you, but when I was 14, I wrote reams of the most mawkish, overwrought, eager poetry and prose you can imagine. Just dripping with the most obvious symbols and hackneyed metaphors. All of it crammed into iambic pentameter (my forays into choriambic septameter always failed, for reasons that only later became clear).  And lots of lyrics -- inspired almost entirely by Foghat, Kansas, and Lynyrd Skynyrd (Rush was waaay beyond my talents, and the lyrics of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin inspired my interest in cryptography).

I assure you it is no loss to literature that all my writings as an adolescent have been lost. Even at that tender, naive age, I realized my stuff was so bad that I never showed it to anyone.

And, yet, it was mine. My creation. My attempt to wrap teenage angst in words. Catharsis.

Catharsis was certainly pretty much what Rachel Boim, a 14 year old honors student in Georgia USA, was looking for when she wrote a story in her journal about a dream in which a student shoots her math teacher.

Rachel's mistake was to take the journal to school, where it was confiscated by a teacher. She was expelled for threatening bodily harm against school personnel.

That was in 2003. Since then, ridiculed in the press, the Fulton County school board backed off a bit. But a US District Court has dismissed Boim's plea that her First Amendment rights had been violated, despite the testimony of Georgia poet laureate David Bottoms.

You can read the full story here. It'll sicken you if freedom of expression means anything to you.

And if you are 14? Write whatever you want, everything you want. But the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to you. Not in Georgia, anyway. So lock it up.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:03am in Civil Liberty, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (8)

Robert Reich now has RSS!

A couple of months ago, I noted that Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor, is blogging (on Blogspot, no less). Since then, Reich has added a feed, so he's now someone I can read daily.

Thanks, Bob!

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:54pm in Civil Liberty, Podcasting, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Happy Birthday, America

Sometimes, a little fiction is just what I need.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:59am in Civil Liberty | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

What does the Denmark vs. Islam story teach us?

What started as an example of appallingly poor judgment by a provincial Danish newspaper has become multipolar diplomatic crisis.  Go figure.

The story thus far:

* back in September, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a feature that included satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad. That was a serious breach of good manners, since the editors of the paper knew that Islam considers it blasphemy to create images of Mohammad.

* Muslims, both in Denmark and abroad, complained. The ambassadors of several Muslim countries called on the Danish Prime Minister to "do something" about the newspaper. Rightly, he replied that they would just have to suck it up -- in democracies, governments don't interfere with newspapers.

* the situation has escalated weekly since then. The latest: boycotts of Danish goods across the Muslim world, fatwas, death threats, more calls to punish the newspaper, burning of Danish flags in the Gaza Strip (that's a new one).

* in response (the high minded call it solidarity, the cynical call it circulation-building) papers across Europe have been reprinting the cartoons this week, resulting in even more fatwas, flag burnings, death threats, etc.

What's to learn from all this?

One obvious lesson, one that most learn by age 6, is that it is rude to mock other people's religious beliefs.  It insults them, and that's just not nice.

Another obvious lesson, usually learned about the same time, is that some people are too easily insulted. Yes, any one of us would feel hurt to see a cherished belief demeaned, but the faith of the faithful is only strengthened by the brickbats hurled by the uncomprehending ( so I am told -- I'm a happy secular humanist). A more appropriate response than flag burning and beatings is "Oooooo K... last laugh's gonna be on you, brother!"

But the other lessons... what are they?

What do communicators need to think about in a world where an article in an obscure newspaper calls down boycotts on your company? When a controversy like this can leave employees pulled in several directions: loyalty to religious faith, a desire to do a good job, a desire not to be beaten at the factory gates.

And make no mistake: the controversy is pulling Danish business leaders in several directions, too. While none have called for out and out curbing of press freedom, there have been some hints. Should managers put profit over principle? Should governments curb freedom of speech so business can go on "gettin' it done"? Do we sack the religious faithful, uncertain of their loyalty? Do we sack the religious faithful because it's safer for them if we do? Do we try to dissemble, saying "Our HQ might be in Denmark (France, USA, Japan) but we are not really Danish (French, American, Japanese), so don't blame us"?

As globalization progresses (a good thing, I believe), these incidents will become commonplace. Professional communicators need to be considering strategies now... before it comes to their town.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:55pm in Bizarre but Expected, Civil Liberty, Current Affairs, Denmark, Is Tedious in the House?, Journalism, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (15)

A democracy of groups: a tremendous article by Beth Simone Noveck

First Monday is one of the few peer-reviewed journals on the Internet, and is, as far as I know, the only one devoted entirely to the Internet.  It was originally Danish, so I started reading it from Issue One, in May 1996, the articles of which were:

Electronic Cash and Monetary Policy by Mark Bernkopf

The Social Life of Documents by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid - introduction by Esther Dyson

Networked-centered is an oxymoron by Rishab Ghosh

Law and Borders - The rise of law in Cyberspace by David R. Johnson and David Post

Corporate Metamorphosis: The Effects of the New Media by Sean Murphy

Yep, in the first warm days of 1996, First Monday writers were looking at topics and ideas that, nine years later, are often just barely creeping into MSM.

The November 2006 issue includes an article I want to recommend to Desirable Roasted Coffee readers. It's A Democracy of Groups, by Beth Simone Noveck at the New York Law School (she's the blogger at The Cairns Blog). It's about 40 pages long, and it's not written in the snappy style of Business 2.0. But it's a excellent examination of one reason why social media is compelling and essential. Here's the abstract:

In groups people can accomplish what they cannot do alone. Now new visual and social technologies are making it possible for people to make decisions and solve complex problems collectively. These technologies are enabling groups not only to create community but also to wield power and create rules to govern their own affairs.

Electronic democracy theorists have either focused on the individual and the state, disregarding the collaborative nature of public life, or they remain wedded to outdated and unrealistic conceptions of deliberation. This article makes two central claims.

First, technology will enable more effective forms of collective action. This is particularly so of the emerging tools for "collective visualization" which will profoundly reshape the ability of people to make decisions, own and dispose of assets, organize, protest, deliberate, dissent and resolve disputes together.

From this argument derives a second, normative claim. We should explore ways to structure the law to defer political and legal decision–making downward to decentralized group–based decision–making. This argument about groups expands upon previous theories of law that recognize a center of power independent of central government: namely, the corporation.

If we take seriously the potential impact of technology on collective action, we ought to think about what it means to give groups body as well as soul — to "incorporate" them. This paper rejects the anti–group arguments of Sunstein, Posner and Netanel and argues for the potential to realize legitimate self–governance at a "lower" and more democratic level. The law has a central role to play in empowering active citizens to take part in this new form of democracy.

I have only read the first few pages, and have no choice but to print the whole thing out and read it this weekend. So far, excellent.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:07pm in Civil Liberty, Communication, Ethics, Law, Smart Communities, Social Tools, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Straits Times: Blogs Much Worse Than Porn

Carl Skadian, Straits Times reporter, has recently discovered blogs. And they scare the bejesus out of him.

Get a load of the lead:

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:39am in Bizarre & Amusing, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Journalism | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3) | TrackBack (0)

Attention Saudi Dawn & Drew Fans: this Book is for you

My September paper copy of Wired has a spread on "countries that censor Web content  -- and what really offends them (oddly, the article does not appear in the online edition).

The list of offenders isn't surprising, but what scares them can be. Saudi Arabia blocks 100% of porn, for example, but also takes a hard line on humor, making it doubly hard for Saudi fans of Dawn & Drew, I suppose. Uzbekistan doesn't like porn either, and bans gmail. China is soft on porn, but bans Wikipedia. The criminals that run Burma really hate email -- and don't even think about eBay.

With so much thuggish cybercopping out there, it's a relief to see that Reporters sans Frontières has published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents (free pdf download, 1.6MB) to help citizen journalists in benighted countries to get around Big Brother.

"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation."

It's available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:42pm in Books, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law, Online Media, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Desirable Roasted Coffee is not Tripe...

On Monday afternoon the first in a series of three debates hosted by the European Parliament on the implications of the information society highlighted a number of issues in the use of so-called weblogs. Major concerns were the accountability of "bloggers" and the protection of privacy - or rather the lack of both.

I enjoy living in Europe, my home for over 20 years. Since I get back to the American South fairly often, I'm able to feed my desires for the best of that region, without being overly irritated by the things that prompted me to leave.

If I could ever be prompted to leave Europe, it would probably from a fit of pique sparked by the distrust European officialdom has always shown innovations in media.

Example: 15 years ago, it was illegal to have a satellite dish in Denmark. Why? People might watch who knows what all! And while that "what all" might be as innocent as a Turkish soap opera, it wouldn't be Danish.

Example: 7 years ago, I was on an IFPMA panel discussing the intersection of health care and the Internet. I was seated next to a  functionary of the Belgian health ministry, who sputtered so vehemently that all online discussion of pharmaceuticals and treatments should be illegal, even jailable, that my notes today are even wet with his spittle.

I naively thought we were past that.

But now the European Parliament is holding hearings about blogging. And... they are getting pretty poor advice from the usual suspects: journalists frightened to death, who are willing to drag in any red herring rotting behind the fishmongers.

Here's a quote from the "debate".

"As Karlin Lillington, a technology journalist of the Irish Times pointed out, "journalists face libel laws, whereas some bloggers behave as if they're in the Wild West. Bloggers will state things without saying where they got them from. And increasingly, blogs are used to promote products without making this clear"."

This is fairly easy to parse. Wild West (or cowboy, or John Wayne) is a code-phrase for the US. Americans roar with laughter when I tell them this, but that's just how it is. So what Lillington is really saying is "[European] journalists face libel laws, whereas some [European] bloggers behave as if they're in [the United States]".

Well, that's bullshit. Libel laws apply to everyone. To the extent that those laws  and court precedents differentiate between two classes, it's journalists, not "private" citizens who get the better break.

And bloggers are suspect because they promote products? Well, Desirable Roasted Coffee doesn't and doesn't intend to. But what if I did? What business is it of the European Parliament or the Irish Times? Not much.

We bloggers had at least one ally:

Thomas Burg, of BlogTalk.net, saw things very differently, saying "weblogs are not about content but about sharing, learning and connecting with other people". Blogs should thus be seen as free conversations between people who do not need to adhere to specific rules, rather than as news postings on the Internet.

But he was quickly shot out of the saddle (obligatory cowboy metaphor) by Aidan White, General Secretary (note to Aidan: Socialism is dead... get a new title) of the International Federation of Journalists:

"a democratic society sets certain norms and standards which should not be thrown out of the window. He deplored the lack of a global legal framework to combat child pornography and libellous or hateful weblogs on the Internet."

Note, students of rhetoric, how deftly Aidan White connects your unregulated blog to abhorrent crime, libel, hate, the discarding of democratic norms. You'd look positively anti-social... even criminal... if you object now to having some "norms" and "regulations" put on your blog.

And Karlin Lillington is also quick to question your values, your morals, your stand-upness for the law if you happen to be a citizen journalist:

"As regards privacy, Lillington acknowledged that weblogs after last December's tsunami were a useful source of information and that pictures taken by passers-by after the bomb attacks on the London underground were posted on the Internet quicker than by any established news organisation, but she also stressed that these did somehow damage privacy. However, she added, "these are not new crimes, there are just new tools to commit them"."

Well, Karlin Lillington, that makes it clear. Now I know exactly the difference between a paid Irish Times journalist and a blogger who both witness....  no, hang on... I'll get it right in a minute! Bear with me...

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 12:55pm in Bloggers, Blogging, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Communication, Expatriate Life, Journalism, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

EU Considers Net-TV Regulation; Implications for Podcasters?

Via MarketingVOX comes this Times article: EU seeks to regulate television on the net.

Since the technology that makes Internet-TV possible is not dissimilar from the technology that makes  Internet-radio possible, I wonder if podcasting will come under regulatory scrutiny?`

After all, if Internet-TV stations can be held to "fairness" and "equal time" standards, couldn't podcasters? And, if podcasters can be, why not bloggers?

Is this a slippery slope or am I paranoid?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 12:15pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Communication, Law, Podcasting, Regulation | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

The incomparable H. L. Mencken used to publish a volume called Americana, in which he gathered newspaper clippings from around the United States that tended to inadvertantly (and hilariously) send up boosterism, yokel-ness, Babbitry, and the general ignorance and benightedness of many of the people we let watch over us.

It's hard to find a copy these days (published in the 20s; I have the 1923 edition), but if you find one, get it.  You'll either like or you will hate it (Hint to red-staters: save your money).

I've no doubt that if Mencken were still with us, this piece would make it into the Americana 2005 edition:

"An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

"The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

"Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion."

Link: Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 05:09pm in Bizarre but Expected, Books, Civil Liberty, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

1-in-4 Americans Would Let Government Censor Press

22% of Americans say the government should be allowed to censor the press, probably because only 14% can name "freedom of the press" as a constitutional guarantee.

The survey, conducted by the University of Connecticut, also found that 53% of Americans believe that articles that cite unnamed sources should not be published.

The survey echoes an earlier poll in which Junior Americans were found to be just as censorious as Mommy and Daddy.

Via The Nation

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:22am in Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (1)

Halley Suitt's Touching Request to Diversify the Blogosphere

I'm a white guy who writes in a blog, so I hope you will excuse me while I sit here and dominate the blogosphere. Yes, apparently that's what I (well, not me, but other white guys, those guys on the blogger A list) do, according to MSNBC's Steven Levy and blogger Halley Suitt.

Halley Suitt thinks it's time to fix that. Here's Halley's touching request -- that we all link to Ten New Voices (she means blogs; I had to look that up, too) this month:

"Here are the rules:

1.  They can't be male if they are white;

2.  You must have five women and five men;

3.  You must have at least three non-Americans.

Ironically, I think the toughest criterion to meet here will be NON-AMERICANS. We bloggers are very provincial in this respect."

It's the last paragraph that flummoxes me. There's nothing "ironic" in anything she says, but that's my silly pedantry.

But what's glaringly stupid is that she writes those lines in apparent ignorance of the hundreds of thousands of blogs written by "non-Americans" (whether she's being loose or tight with that definition does not change facts), yet remains smug in the belief that "we bloggers" are a close little group.

What she really means is "non Americans whose languages I understand".... otherwise, she has no way of checking.

Moreover, I'm good in her book if I link to them. That I praise them or roast them is of no interest. Just that I link. Sorry, Halley.... that's not quite on.

Halley... I link to great posts, bad posts, ignorant posts, posts that make me wish I'd dreamed of them, posts that are so instructive they should be seen no matter how badly they frighten the children.

Your post goes under "Bizarre but Expected" and "In Defense of Elitism".

Unfortunately, trackbacks are impossible, and "Post a Comment" seems to be disabled.

Via friend Gunnar Langemark.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:13pm in Bizarre but Expected, Bloggers, Civil Liberty, In Defense of Elitism, Online Media, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5) | TrackBack (1)

Apple v. Bloggers: the Wrong Test Case for Blogger Rights

Dan Gillmor is outraged at the latest development in the Apple v. Does case.

On March 3, Judge Kleinberg tenatively agreed with Apple that AppleInsider and PowerPage , who published stories allegedly based on trade secrets leaked by Apple insiders were not covered by California shield laws. This may mean that the bloggers will be forced to give up their sources.

Gillmor, uncharacteristically going off the rails, calls this ruling "bizarre and dangerous" when it is neither.

Gillmor (along with many others) should save his outrage for a better case. The only thing noteworthy about this case is that everyone involved deserves a smart spanking and a year in Redmond.

Why?

Apple deserves a spanking for suing three publications widely read by its enthusiastic fan base. Yes, Apple probably would have preferred that the information not be released when it was. But suing your cheering section is hardly a thoughtful strategy (Forbes, no friend of the little man, agrees.)

The three blogs, if allegations are true, broke a story using trade secrets supplied by an Apple insider. That's one way to get a scoop, but it also poisons the well. Somehow I suspect these blogs are not at the top of Apple's PR department's contact list, and I think the bloggers can pretty much rule out useful access to Apple. Spanking for the blogs.

And both teams of lawyers have made "Are they bloggers or journalists?" the central issue of the case. But California shield laws are narrowly-written (they are pre-blogosphere) and, strictly interpreted, blogs are not covered. And, even if they were covered, shield laws do not fully protect journalists from having to reveal sources: the judge can rule that the public's interest in solving a felony (the leak of trade secrets) is greater than its interest in protecting journalists from inquiry.

Finally, by fanning the flames, Gillmor and the EFF have helped attract national attention to the case (see this morning's NYT article (sub required, or copy here) or Google it). Unfortunately, what the wider public will remember is "Bloggers Leak Trade Secrets, Claim Journalist Immunity"; hardly a proud day for serious bloggers.

No, this is not the right test case. If Judge Kleinberg is helpful, he will rule that the blogs are indeed journals, but that they still must hand over the sources. But, pressed to the wall by both sides, who could blame him for taking the narrowest approach possible in this case that should be tried behind the woodshed?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:01pm in Blogging, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (6) | TrackBack (0)

Our Budding Storm Troopers

32% of US high school students believe the press enjoys "too much freedom" and only half believe that newspapers should be able to publish freely, according to a Knight Foundation study released yesterday. 36% believe newspapers should get government approval before publishing stories.

Call me old-fashioned, but I've always taken the Hugo Black - William O. Douglas position that the First Amendment means what it says -- what part of "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" do high school students not understand?

But it's not like they receive much guidance. According to the report, about 30% of adults believe the First Amendment goes too far, and educators report there's little room in the curriculum to teach the Bill of Rights.

Sad reading. Coincidentally, I am re-reading Sinclair Lewis' 1935 classic It Can't Happen Here. Oh, yes it could. Especially when only half the kids in the country think the press should be free.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:55am in Books, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)