Talk show host Brian Wilson added another notch to his holster (or whatever) today.
A federal judge slapped a permanent injunction on mayor Carty Finkbeiner (don’t blame me, I didn’t make the name up) and the city of Toledo.
Unfortunately, Wilson doesn’t drink beer, so he will not be celebrating properly tonight.
Here are some details from the station:
News Talk 1370 WSPD/Toledo has received a Permanent Injunction from Federal Court Judge James Carr in its case against the city of Toledo and Carty Finkbeiner, regarding the First Amendment.
Under the order, the radio station will receive “equivalent” notification of all news conferences and WSPD personnel will not be barred from attending.
A copy of the original court transcript can be found here:
http://wspd.com/pages/images/clearchannelhearingtranscript.PDF
Other supporting materials can be found at:
http://www.wspd.com/pages/hotbutton.html.
The lawsuit stemmed from a January 9th incident in which a reporter from the station was not allowed to attend a public news conference. Additionally, the station had been excluded from all notifications of city news conferences and other public events since June 2006.
Nice title for this bit! And, for the record and to the best of my belief, as a dedicated Bass Annoyance Specialist, what Brian notches to commemorate his victories is something he affectionately calls “his rod.” I have never had the courage to ask for further or more explicit specifics.
If that is the case, then I hope he doesn’t have too many victories that need recording.
On the other hand, since they can use fiberglass thread and sheets to repair things, maybe he’ll just keep notching his rod until…he needs glasses?
Cute (rod comments, notches, yadda etc).
But this was – and is – serious stuff.
We had a real Constitutional crisis here: the mayor’s spokespoodle first barred my newsman from a presser telling him “the mayor doesn’t think you’re an objective reporter.” When another press conference was announced the next day, the same reporter, the entire News dept., 2 producers, the AM talk show host and I showed up. The same toady literally threw his weight behind the door to prevent our entry. The rest is history (complete with pictures)at wspd.com.
However, this doesn’t represent the entire story or include all the facts that make for serious concern.
This story died almost immediately. Except for the Editor and Chief of the Toledo Free Press, no other media outlet reported the story 24 hours later.
All TV 4 News Directors refused to sign a letter to the mayor condemming his blantant 1st and 14th Amendment violations.
Two national TV networks contacted their Toledo affiliates when the story made the AP wire** and asked for guidance on whether this was a story of national importance. Both networks, including ours (Fox) were told “No”. In fact, the local Fox TV affiliate never covered the story at all.
**(Note: The AP office is inside the Toledo Blade building).
The underwhelming reponse from the public has just been further evidence Toledo is the mid-west distribution center for Aggressive Ignorance and Contagious Apathy.
If Paul Revere had ridden through Toledo, the citizens would have told him to shut up.
The egregious, immoral, illegal activities practiced regularly here – and with impunity – would gag a maggot. Maybe that’s why Toledo is a Magggot Free Zone.
Except City Hall.
Brian – thanks for fighting the good fight.
I think the story of your clash and victory would make a great essay…
Wouldn’t take a bit away from the seriousness and reality of it, nor from my genuine congratulations to and appreciation of you and WSPD fighting the fight. But the disinterest of the public and MSM in the issue (and why do national networks have to ask local affiliates if it’s important – can’t they see that for themselves?), that the Mayor (in general and by and through his cronies in this particular) demonstrated no belief that they might not get away with it, and other wonderful bits like the brouhaha over the Cartoon Network advertising lights leads me to conclude that the iceberg has long since disappeared in the rearview mirror and we’re just debating deck chair placement.
To maintain the piscine analogies, the Salmon of Liberty have been spawning on the gravel of Statism for over two centuries now, with predictable results. I’m pretty much spawned out and am looking to head back back downstream, hopefully avoiding the guys with nets in the process.