free speech

Public Officials Can’t Block Critics From Official Social Media Accounts

by cgrotke | Politics

You may have read that courts ruled that Trump, using a Twitter account for official, open government purposes, cannot block people based on the views they express. This applies to all public officials, not just Trump. It’s a first amendment issue.

Members of the Selectboard and elected Representative Town Meeting reps should take notice and proceed with caution.

FCC Threatens BCTV’s Survival

by BCTVDirector | Media

BRATTLEBORO, VT—November 30, 2018—BCTV today announced that its future and that of similar organizations around Vermont and the country is in serious jeopardy. On September 25, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued proposed rulemaking (Docket 05-311) which, if successful, could allow cable operators to reclassify certain services and charge those against the cable subscriber fees that are collected to fund public access stations in Vermont and across the country.

Free Speech on Campus To Be Discussed at Landmark College, November 13

by landmarkcollege | Politics

The final presentation of the Fall 2018 Landmark College Academic Speaker Series is by Linus Owens of Middlebury College, on Tuesday, November 13 at 7 p.m. in the Brooks M. O’Brien Auditorium, located in the East Academic Building.

Entitled “Divisiveness is Not Diversity—Academic Freedom and Free Speech on Campus,” the talk will touch on Owens’s first-hand experience with challenges faced by Middlebury College during the March 2017 visit by controversial author Charles Murray, which was disrupted by hundreds of student protestors.

Some Thoughts On Cancelling Roseanne

by cgrotke | Media

Roseanne’s new iteration of her family sit-com was cancelled by ABC shortly after a series of tweets by the star of the show. She called a former Obama advisor the child of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes, then doubled down for a while when people called her racist. Then she apologized, but it was too late.

ACLU Calls On Local Governments To Pursue Public Broadband

by cgrotke | Sci-Tech

As Brattleboro begins down the path toward adding municipal broadband utility, the ACLU has weighed in with a new report “The Public Internet Option – How Local Governments Can Provide Network Neutrality, Privacy, and Access for All.”

The report compares the necessity of internet access to that of electricity and water, and says that the rollback of net neutrality laws and enforcement threatens equal access (as we have for say, roads and bridges).