Reading Recommendations: 2007-01-17

Special censorship edition

• Wires Reject Handout Photo Of Bush Speech

  The reason for all of those low res pix of Bush in the papers, the day after the speech. Paranoia is at a new high at the White House, it seems to me.
  
  Thanks to Eat The Press for the link.
  
  On a related note, you heard that none of the broadcast networks aired the Democratic response, right? I admit that I didn't watch Bush's speech, and would probably have been equally unimpressed by Dick Durbin's response, but still. It's an awfully troubling precedent.
  
  

• Dr. Spocko Nerve-Pinches Disney Over Outrageous SF Radio Show

  Following a hint from Betmo's recent comment under my first Tucker post, I came across this story. Apparently, Spocko is a blogger who had been documenting the heinous sputterings aired on the radio station KSFO. Disney/ABC prevailed upon the blogger's ISP to kill his site, claiming that the audio clips that Spocko posted were some kind of copyright infringement. (To my mind, it's hard to believe any sane person would want to control ownership of this kind of hate speech, but never mind that.) At any rate, Spocko's ISP killed Spocko's site. <sarcasm>(Gutsy move, 1&1.)</sarcasm>
  
  [Update: I wrote the above paragraph on 13 Jan, and followed by noting that the MSM hadn't picked up on the story. After double-checking Google News today, I see that the NYTimes ran an article on 15 Jan.]
  
  Meantime, the good news is, Spocko has a new host, and the audio links work.
  
  

• Federal Way schools restrict Gore film: 'Inconvenient Truth' called too controversial

  Another link courtesy of Eat The Press.
  
  BTW, Federal Way is a city. The article doesn't make this clear, probably because if you read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, you're assumed to know this. The point is, Federal Way is not some business running charter schools -- it's a city whose school board is running public schools.
  
  Excerpt:

  "Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."
  
  Hardison's e-mail to the School Board prompted board member David Larson to propose the moratorium Tuesday night.
  
  "Somebody could say you're killing free speech, and my retort to them would be we're encouraging free speech," said Larson, a lawyer. "The beauty of our society is we allow debate."

  
  
  What did you learn in school today? Condoms = Al Gore. The Bible = the best source for climatological information. Banning movies = encouraging free speech.
  
  We're doomed.