ombudsman columns
Page 4 of 11
The media: bells, whistles and flashing lights
Ombudsman If you thought that news about the media couldn't get any more bizarre, you haven't been paying attention.
01.26.00
Free speech is not always just about the First Amendment
Ombudsman Atlanta Braves' pitcher John Rocker is catching a lot of flack from minority groups, the commissioner of baseball, his boss, his teammates, the mayor of New York, and just about everyone else with a conscience or a microphone. There's even a special Web site devoted to flaming Rocker.
01.11.00
First Amendment: Surviving Year 2000 challenges
Ombudsman Since the World War I era, First Amendment freedoms have been firmly internalized by our social, political and legal systems. But the eternal urge to censor speech has not been tamed. Thus, Americans pay lip service to free speech but don't trust it any further than the tips of their own tongues.
01.03.00
Press faces new year of old problems
Ombudsman Ethical lapses, adverse court decisions, public hostility, media-reform proposals threaten press's independence.
12.28.99
Why the panic over online information?
Ombudsman It's the same data already filed in other forms, but we seem willing to shut off electronic information at the drop of a hat.
12.13.99
When First Amendment principles go global
Ombudsman News media should have been better prepared to cover World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, because nothing organizes ordinary people like attempts by governments or elites to shut them up and shut them out.
12.06.99
Another community faces a Net loss in freedom
Ombudsman The Herrick District Library serves the city of Holland and the townships of Holland, Park and Laketown in Michigan. The staff and board work hard to make sure that patrons enjoy and benefit from their library experience, including accessing the Internet on the library's computers.
11.30.99
There is a price to pay for muzzling a murderer
Ombudsman 'Shut up or die' isn't the kind of choice one expects to have to make in a democratic society. But that was the choice recently presented to Aaron McKinney while on trial in Laramie, Wyo., for murdering Matthew Shepard.
11.22.99
Teaching freedom where it doesn't exist
Ombudsman NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Thirty-seven elementary and secondary teachers from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee gathered at the First Amendment Center this past weekend for a conference designed to give them materials and training to better teach their students about the First Amendment.
11.08.99
Too often public is injured in collision of rights
Ombudsman The judicial system always seems to want something from the press and the press something from the judicial system. Seldom is either satisfied.
11.01.99
Page last updated: 5/2/2013 3:43:26 AM
