Using Copyright Law to Silence Bloggers

Progress Report Archives 2006-07 – Center for American Progress Action Fund

MEDIA — ABC/DISNEY SHUTS DOWN BLOGGER WHO HIGHLIGHTED INFLAMMATORY RHETORIC ON ABC STATION: For several months, a blogger nicknamed “Spocko” has been highlighting the inflammatory rhetoric used by talk radio hosts on KSFO, an ABC Radio-owned station in San Francisco. As Media Matters documents, “Spocko compiled a litany of examples on both his weblog, Spocko’s Brain, and in numerous letters to corporations advertising on KSFO. He noted that KSFO hosts had claimed to have put ‘a bull’s-eye’ on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), advocated hanging various New York Times editors, called for the murder of millions of Muslims, and so on.” Major advertisers, including MasterCard, Bank of America, and Visa, reportedly pulled their ads from the station. In response, “on December 21, ABC Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group, apparently issued a cease-and-desist letter targeting Spocko and his blog for copyright violation. Specifically, ABC alleged that by posting brief audio clips of various talk radio hosts on KSFO, the site was ‘in clear violation’ of the station’s copyright. The letter demanded that the owner of the site ‘remove the content immediately.’ Soon after, according to Spocko, his Internet service provider shut down his blog.” The major media has yet to report on this story.

In related news, ABC News announced this week that right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck will soon join Good Morning America as a “regular commentator.” Beck has a history of inflammatory and offensive remarks. During an interview with Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Beck said “what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'” On another occasion, Beck said that if “Muslims and Arabs” don’t “act now” by “step[ping] to the plate” to condemn terrorism, they “will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West.”

Trip to Bosque

For a few years now, a group of us has been renting a van and driving south of Socorro, New Mexico, for a day at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Bosque is a managed habitat for migrating waterfowl cupped in the hands of distant mountains. Miles of dirt roads weave around several large, shallow lakes. In winter, it is a great spot to see thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese among myriad other birds and some other wildlife.

We had planned to drive down the day the first snowstorm blew in. As it happened, our rescheduled date was after the third storm in as many weeks, but we weren’t going to be stopped this time.

One member of our group is a world traveling ornithologist for the Nature Conservancy, Dr. David Mehlman. Dave has the great eye, ear and encyclopedic mind of a top-notch birder. Along the way, we can’t help but learn something from him. We know our grebes, pintails and coots. We see the Ross’ geese among the larger snow geese.

I’m a lesser birder, which is to say I love seeing birds and even learning more about them, but I’m mostly here to stare open-mouthed at the beauty of the world. My heart would stop for a sandhill crane even if I didn’t know that name. While the others stare through binoculars, I’m taking pictures. As they flip through well-worn bird books (Dave makes us do a little work for ourselves), I sip coffee and marvel.

Our slow drive around the bosque is also a movable feast, a finger-food potluck on wheels. Even after gorging all day on bison empanadas and prosciutto filo triangles, we all look forward to green chile cheeseburgers in Antonito (at the Buckhorn for two years and the Owl Cafe before that).

Every New Mexican and birders from all over owe themselves a pilgrimage to Bosque del Apache for the sunset fly-in or the dawn fly-out. Be sure to lower your camera and be quiet to drink it all in. mjh

I’ve posted a couple of dozen photos, mostly of sandhill cranes at:
Bosque del Apache – a photoset on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/sets/72157594468819628/detail/

mjh’s blog — Bird Man of Albuquerque (no, not me!)

Bird Man of Albuquerque (no, not me!)

Gore Leaves Door Ajar for 2008

Gore Leaves Door Ajar for 2008 By Chris Cillizza And Shailagh Murray

Early last month, Gore addressed more than three dozen labor leaders in Washington, a wide-ranging talk about the Democratic congressional gains and the media, said one attendee, who demanded anonymity. Asked about 2008, Gore said that he has taken a number of calls from people encouraging him to consider running but he “didn’t know whether he was going to or not,” the source said. “Everybody felt he left a small door open.”

NRA Pressured To Resist Bush Energy Policies

NRA Pressured To Resist Bush Energy Policies By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer

After years of close association with the Republican Party and hard-nosed opposition to federal land-use regulation, the National Rifle Association is being pressured by its membership to distance itself from President Bush’s energy policies that have opened more public land for oil and gas drilling and limited access to hunters and anglers.

“The Bush administration has placed more emphasis on oil and gas than access rights for hunters,” said Ronald L. Schmeits, second vice president of the NRA, a member of its board of directors and a bank president in Raton, N.M. …

But, during the past six years, an increasing number of the country’s 46 million hunters and anglers, including Republican-leaning shooting organizations such as the Boone and Crockett Club, have been grumbling about the Bush’s administration fast-tracking of oil and gas drilling leases on public lands.

A Heckuva Claim

A Heckuva Claim

PRESIDENT BUSH wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that “it is also a fact that our tax cuts have fueled robust economic growth and record revenues.” The claim about fueling record revenue is flat wrong, and it is shocking that the president should persist in making such errors. After all, tax cuts are the central plank of his domestic policy. How can he fail to understand the basic facts about them?

This is not just our opinion. Harvard’s N. Gregory Mankiw, an economic conservative who served as chairman of Mr. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, has tested the hypothesis on which Mr. Bush’s claim is based ….

If Mr. Bush does not believe Mr. Mankiw, perhaps he may believe the Congressional Budget Office. …

If Mr. Bush believes neither Mr. Mankiw nor the Congressional Budget Office, he should at least respect his own Treasury. …

Mr. Bush’s op-ed included nice statements about bipartisan cooperation. But the Democrats would be more likely to cooperate with the president if he stopped making things up.

Howard Kurtz – Opinionator-in-Chief

Howard Kurtz – Opinionator-in-Chief

[Duhbya:] “It’s time Congress give the president a line-item veto. And today I will announce my own proposal to end this dead-of-the-night process and substantially cut the earmarks passed each year.”

Let me get this straight. After six years of a Republican Congress earmarking truckloads of pork for home districts, much of it for Bridge-to-Nowhere projects, Bush has suddenly decided–the day before the Democrats take control–that earmarking is an outrage?

How convenient.

It’s still a good idea to make it harder for lawmakers to slip costly goodies into bills. But when has Bush exhibited much concern for the inner workings of Congress? Whenever he’s been asked about the Foley scandal or Tom DeLay’s problems, the White House line has always been, that’s a congressional matter.