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3/11/2020

Well, that didnt take long, thankfully. It seems last Thursday afternoon, a piece of legislation was filed by local state senators Sandra Cano and Betty Crowley, along with others. The Stop Guilt by Accusation Act was meant to ban media from selectively reporting certain facts.

Legislators noted that the First Amendment to the Constitution, the first and most important article in the Bill of Rights, said Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press. Then came the bill, abridging freedom of the press and promising $10,000 fines for non-compliance.

The senators had filed the bill at the request of Rep. Grace Diaz, of Providence, who met a man last year who felt he had been mistreated by the media.

Our editor, Ethan Shorey, upon learning of the bill, immediately tweeted it out, and the race was on as WPRIs Ted Nesi and others began asking questions.

Soon after, the bill was withdrawn. Well done! But then came the Friday Providence Journal story, and the headline and story became more about the man who asked for the bills filing than about the First Amendment. It seems the man, Chris Sevier, of Atlanta, is an anti-abortion and anti-LGBT activist. Wrote the Journal: According to a March 2 story about Sevier on the website Mississippitoday.org:He sued Apple for their laptops not blocking porn that he said killed his marriage. Hes drafted anti-LGBT bills that have been pushed by lawmakers in several states. He tried to marry his laptop in three states in apparent protest over same-sex marriage.

OK, so hes a right-wing activist making some very strange claims (and thats being kind).

But I was disappointed to read Diaz say, My feeling is beyond what I can express, after learning of Seviers history. If I knew, I would run ten-thousand-million miles away from that guy.So her sin, apparently, was talking to a right-winger, and not trying to limit press freedom. Wow. Lets never do that again!

Let me just say this: Obviously, I stand with journalists who were horrified by this bill. Every legislator should know from Civics 101 that there will never be a case or reason to abridge the free press. Period! There will never, ever be a circumstance where people would come to trust government censors and busybodies over their own ability to sort through news.

That said, I think Sevier has a point. His complaint was that the media did stories on accusations about him, but never followed up when he was acquitted. Sevier was left, he said to Diaz, with a damaged reputation and no recourse to set the record straight.

I wont speak for anyone beyond myself, but yes, this happens. And it can be damaging, especially in the new world of Google, where facts live online forever.

It would be a huge undertaking for any news outlet to track down every arrest they ever reported and then be forced to report the follow-up facts. But as a publisher, I can see where those accused unjustly would expect exactly that. I didnt begin this newspaper 24 years ago to anger and hurt my neighbors, but it can happen. It is a challenge.

Still, the government will have to live with the medias best efforts at self-policing, as well as monitoring by our readers and those accused. We must do our best, case by case. And yes, even if the complainer is on the fringe of the right-wing. He may be extreme, and I dont support his limits on a free press, but it doesnt mean he doesnt have a point.

Ward is publisher of The Valley Breeze

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TOM WARD Beyond the headline, complainer had a point - Valley Breeze