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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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Our strange saga in Victoria County is starting to get national attention. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a national organization, has posted a summary of the Victoria Advocate's struggle to report on the fallout of the Michael Ratcliff investigation.
The article quotes the newspaper's attorney, Laura Prather, who also is president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. As she argued last week in court, the district attorney's subpoenas are hindering the Advocate's ability to report on the ongoing trials.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press reporter based in San Antonio called me last week and plans to visit our newsroom Monday as part of a story about the Free Flow of Information Act, which appears finally headed toward becoming law. The state House unanimously approved the so-called shield law last week. I blogged recently about testifying before a House committee in support of the law.
I'd gladly trade any and all of this publicity for the ability to cover the story without the expense and hassle of fighting for press freedoms.
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Comments
I too feel that a couple of my posts were deleted because they were radioactive, not because they violated Advocate policy. I suspect that deleting/censorship begins with high minded ideals of doing public good. Unfortunately, as with most authoritarian regimes, it evolves from altruism to expediency.
April 9, 2009 at 11:36 a.m.AGAIN, I agree with Dig's last post. The Advocate is very quick to delete anything that is even mildly critical of the paper, but I had to beg, send emailS, and post demandS to get stuff off MY profile. Not fair, not fair.
April 9, 2009 at 6:52 a.m.If you read our user policy, and as we have stated before, we do not read all comments on this site.
We encourage that if you see a blog post or comment in violation of our policy, to please report it by using the "Report a Violation" link. Once a report is made, an email is sent to all those on our moderation panel and they review the comment in question and decide to remove it or not.
Thanks.
April 8, 2009 at 11:33 p.m.Dig,
Most people have no problem distinguishing between a named journalist working for a news organization and an anonymous person commenting on a Web site. Our elected representatives in the state House voted unanimously in support of this bill, which appears headed toward becoming law.
The basic rules of posting on the Advocate site have been repeatedly stated: no name-calling; no trolling; no unsubstantiated assertions. The vast majority of our posters, whether anonymous or not, observe these rules with no problem. We celebrate their participation. Here's a link to our user policy: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/user-...
To elaborate, calling someone Hitler would be considered name-calling. When people regularly break these basic rules, we will ban them in an attempt to provide a place where people will want to contribute to the community conversation.
We're not interested in providing a forum for trolls.
April 8, 2009 at 10:28 p.m.Still worked.
April 5, 2009 at 10:51 p.m.haha, typo
April 5, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.It's going down the crapper?
April 5, 2009 at 10:41 p.m.Print news is going the way of the doodoo. Start adjusting to it now or get left behind.
I for one love being able to pull up the latest headlines in my hand, 24/7. Besides, if you sit around reading a newspaper at work, you'll probably be fired.
I'm seriously considering using twitter updates on my next project / turnaround.
April 5, 2009 at 10:40 p.m.Mike,
We had such a nice chat Wednesday at De Leon Plaza. Why all the venom now? Twittering has nothing to do with the issues I blogged about above. I'm trying to be tolerant here, but you're accusing me now of smuggling in a cell phone into the courthouse. That's ridiculous because, as you know, we all go through security, and cell phones are allowed.
Again, this has nothing to do with new technology. If you want to talk about any of this, Mike, I'd be happy to talk with you again, as we did Wednesday. I'm sorry you don't like the new blogging software. We recognize it's the weakest part of the new site, and we have enhancing it as a top priority.
April 5, 2009 at 9:27 p.m.