Edited by author 08-29-2003 01:00 PM
Mark: It's what we in the I-am-not-a-lawyer cadre call a pattern of violence. It makes it look like Ashcroft isn't, frankly, the type of man who would talk to the press at all if he could get away with it.

While I don't think that Ashcroft's refusal to speak in front of print press is a violation of any law or Constitutional mandate, it is damned irritating. And not very democratic.

--Jon

It makes it look like Ashcroft isn't, frankly, the type of man who would talk to the press at all if he could get away with it.

Well, technically he could get away with it... and come to think of it, who'd stop him?

-- Mark
So how about that local sporting event?

Well, technically he could get away with it... and come to think of it, who'd stop him?

Well, sure he could stop talking to the press. If he never did anything newsworthy ever again. Which would make it kind of hard to be the AG.

--Jon
The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!

Joe: How is Ashcroft not talking to the print media an erosion of anyone's rights?

It's one thing to not talk to them, but it's another thing to not even let them in. Even though I'm not a lawyer either, the attitude of "I'm-having-a-press-conference-and-they-can-come-in-but-you-can't" sounds like a restriction of freedom of the press to me. It's all about controlling the flow of information from the government to the people. Of course, this would be a better story if this was a reporter for the Inquirer instead of the lowly City Paper.

--Joe
Jesus saves! Gretzky steals... he scores!!

No, it's restriction of freedom of the press when he does something like say "arrest that man", or if he injuncts the City Paper from publishing any kind of story on it. The reporter could simply talk to one of the TV reporters to find out what was said. Oh, and if Ashcroft restricts thtat, that would be a restriction.

Jon's right. It made him look bad, but it wasn't illegal.

-Mike
Someone's going to pay for getting me to talk about politics.

Edited by author 08-29-2003 03:09 PM
Sounds more like a crazed free-weekly writer tried to sleaze his way into a national press conference and got told something stupid by an aide.

Believe it or not, but government officials have been limiting access to press conferences since, well, forever. Especially when it comes to semiliterate alternative-paper gadflies. Notice how the phrase "press credentials" never once appear in his missive? I can't tell whether that's a sign of ignorance or intentional neglect.

When I get back to my office, I reach out to some journalists I respect to see if they share my sense of outrage or can offer any advice about what to do.

Read "anyone who will still return my emails".

Upon some research (read "blind-assed Google search), it seems as if Mr. Altman is the editor of said weekly. One who apparently writes all of his weekly's movie reviews, dabbles in Flight 800 conspiracy theories, defends aging Nazi war criminals, and makes the occasional idle death threat against the current president and vice-president.

Edit: never mind about that last one. I got the mistaken impression that the editor himself was making idle death threats, not simply re-publishing them.

But that official with the Poynter Institute and that New York Times editor apparently get to do a lot of hand-holding for this guy. I kind of pity them.

Last edit, I promise, but on looking at the original blog entry, it turns out that at least one of Quick's readers made the same mistake that I did (of thinking that it was Altman making the threat, not his unnamed nutjob friend), and thus Altman is probably in the Secret Service files twice - once for reporting a death threat, and again in an erroneous report of him making said threat. Either way, the Secret Service can't be too keen about him, especially given his "Shadow Convention" associations.

Well, I am now out one (1) job. Worldcom/MCI up to its old tricks... I will be redoubling my efforts to find one (1) job in Philly. Wish me luck...

--Amanda

Oy, bad news. Good luck, Amanda...

-- Mark

Ack, I'm sorry to hear that, Amanda. On a positive note, I'm glad you're moving to the Philly area.

--Mike

Yes, good luck, Amanda. I don't know where you were living before, but Philly's actually a pretty cool place to live. There's a lot going on here, and yet, as city's go, it's pretty low key.

Plus, our mayor has humorous hair.

-Alyce
And you get to hear Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" a lot.

No matter how nice you people keep telling me Philly is, I ain't moving there. I don't think I could afford an apartment big enough for the two cats and the pony.

-- Jessica
Didn't get pictures of cobwebs this morning but still had a very satisfactory horse ride.

Oh my god. Omigod, omigod, omigod. I have the best sweetie in the world.

"I thought of something we could do this weekend... The McDonald Observatory is having a star party."

We're gonna stay in a bed&breakfast and... and everything! Wow! Yay!!

This is my Mecca, y'see. I moved to Texas because of the Hoby-Eberly telescope--and then found out it's 9 hours away. We've never been. But now we're going! Tomorrow! Wheee!

Edited by author 08-29-2003 10:41 PM
Just passing this on, but apparently Abner's having some difficulty accessing this new forum. (Anyone know what kind of computer he's using? It's like an Osborne or something, right?)

-- Mark

Edited by author 08-30-2003 11:13 AM
It's like an Osborne or something, right?

Well, no wonder he's having trouble. It's probably going through DT's again. Give it a little vodka and see if that helps.

-Alyce

With a 60% chance of 'morning showers and intermittant thunderstorms', I went out at noon today for Barry Hall's annual Labor Day ride. We got about two miles out before it started to pour, weather which continued (with thunder) at levels from 'torrential downpour' to 'steady, drenching rain' for the duration.

Now, lest you think that going ahead with the ride in the face of torrential rain was some kind of localized bullheadedness displayed by only a few hardcore idiots, I'd like to point out that we had two hundred and eighty-one horsepeople on this ride. None of them turned back because of the rain, so this was widespread bullheadedness displayed by a fair number of hardcore idiots.

The prevailing views were... "Cool, I can try out my rain gear" and "Might as well carry on. I can't get any wetter."

-- Jessica
Of course, when we got back to base, it quit raining.

None of them turned back because of the rain, so this was widespread bullheadedness displayed by a fair number of hardcore idiots.

Well, at least one of them wasn't an idiot, right? Or were you counting yourself among them?

-Alyce