Yesterday, on his afternoon show at WISN radio, 1130 AM in Milwaukee, Mark Belling spoke about Free Whitewater, and municipal actions against this website.
I did not have a chance to catch the program live, but heard about it later, and listed to the segment via the WISN website.
Although Belling’s no fan of anonymous blogging, he’s strong critical of how city officials in our small town have reacted to the website, sharply observes that we are a community without a vigorous, inquisitive free press to keep watch on city government, and notes that FREE WHITEWATER’s content is lawful commentary otherwise lacking in print in our city.
Thanks much to Belling for covering the official actions against this small website.
Second, on anonymous speech, I’ll cite from the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission:
“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.”
(As referenced on the EFF.org website, and linked through Justia.com.)
That’s not a particular protection for this website — it’s a protection for all fourteen-thousand of us in Whitewater, and millions more beyond.