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27 July 2010, 2:36 pm
By Dan Kennedy, assistant professor of journalism, Northeastern University
New Hampshire Republicans have hit upon a novel idea to help U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte: lock up a pollster hired by one of her opponents for the crime of engaging in political speech.
According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state GOP, chaired by Gov. John Sununu, has asked Attorney General Michael Delaney to investigate an allegation of push-polling by a pollster hired on behalf of Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hodes. Continue reading ‘In New Hampshire, criminalizing political speech’ »
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19 July 2010, 3:30 pm
By Dan Kennedy, assistant professor of journalism, Northeastern University
This past March, we celebrated when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reversed a Bush-era ban on South African scholar Adam Habib, who had been prevented from traveling to the United States on unproven and undocumented charges that he was somehow tied to terrorism.
Now the Obama administration — and Clinton’s State Department — are doing what appears to be exactly the same thing to Hollman Morris, a Colombian journalist. Morris, the Washington Post reports, was recently denied a visa to enter the United States so that he could spend a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. (Update: The Harvard Crimson reported on July 23 that Morris may soon be granted a visa.) Continue reading ‘A morally repugnant ban against a journalist’ »
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14 July 2010, 5:32 pm
By Dan Kennedy, assistant professor of journalism, Northeastern University
Radio and television stations have long been considered the poor step-cousins of the First Amendment.
Whereas newspapers and magazines can publish virtually any content that’s not obscene, an incitement to violence or a serious breach of national security, broadcasters have been subject to regulations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restricting so-called indecent content to hours when children are presumably in bed. Continue reading ‘Elena Kagan’s First Amendment moment of truth’ »
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14 July 2010, 1:17 am
By Mike Kirby, editor, The Sun Chronicle, Attleboro, Mass.
Like many newspapers, The Sun Chronicle had problems with anonymous comments to our online stories.
But we’ve done two things, and we’re hoping the second will catch the eye of the rest of the news world.
First, back in April, Publisher Oreste P. D’Arconte, with the backing of managers and editors, pulled the plug on online comments after a small number of users abused the privilege. They passed hurtful rumors, launched personal attacks and generally drove discussions into the gutter — all while hiding behind the veil of anonymity. Continue reading ‘Sun Chronicle banishes anonymous commenters’ »