Claremont Insider: Free Speech News

Monday, October 8, 2007

Free Speech News

Ed Padgett, who is a pressman for the Los Angeles Times, has a blog called the LA Pressmen's 20 Year Club. He picked up on the story of Claremont City Attorney Sonia Carvalho trying to have our blog shut down for publishing images of Claremont employee pay stubs - see Padgett's post "Censorship in Claremont."

Padgett pointed out something we'd been wondering about. For all the teeth-gnashing that's gone on over this issue, why has Carvalho or the city of Claremont never contacted us directly if they have a problem with something we've posted?


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The Foothill Cities Blog also had a lively discussion on the same topic.

And, in a similar vein, the FC Blog also picked up on an LA Daily News story about City of Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power worker salaries.

Centinel at the FC Blog thought that Sonia Carvalho should sue the Daily News. Centinel quoted Daily News editor Ron Kaye on the DWP article:

If you read only one story today, I hope it will be this one. The DWP’s bloated salaries, poor management and soaring rates are the most glaring example of what’s wrong with Los Angeles city government. We think this is so important we’ve put up the salaries of all 8,500 employees at dailynews.com. See how your pay compares with theirs.–Ron Kaye, editor

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Opening up the mailbag, we also had a smattering of supportive mail:

This is the best story since FLAG GATE. I had not heard of this site until last week when my wife found it. Keep it going.

And this:

Dear Mr Buzz,

Until now, I thought that the contretemps between the Insider and the City was little more than a matter of petty bureaucrats behaving in silly ways when they don’t get their way. These latest developments, however, are a couple of orders of magnitude beyond that.

I’m sure you’ve heard from others with similar offers, but I hope you’ll add the names of me and my wife to the list of those who will happily contribute to a fund to protect the Insider from being shut down and you and its staff from malicious legal action.

And this:

Pretty sure this..."Carvalho's letter also states that the information in the blog post 'was obtained in an illegal manner that appears to have involved trespass theft.'"...is defamatory, and I would loooooove to see you sue them. Love it, love it, love it, love it.

In any event, keep on keeping on. You're doing great work.

Keep those cards and letters coming!