Porn czar gone wild

(Greensboro, NC) There is a world of difference between spirited debate and an unhinged, mendacious and hysterical attack. Joe Guarino turns to the later in writing about Greensboro's "porn debate." In his frighening screed, he

• Suggests library employees should be arrested for content a patron accessed on a computer.
  
• Repeated a falsity about the number of "visits" to "porn" sites at the library even after his previous use of the number was demonstrated to him to be in error.
  
• Uses innuendo to impugn a reporter by implying that her husband has an immoral "worldview."
  
• Ascribed, with no uncertainty, religious hostility to local media institutions with only his own suspicion as self-enforcing evidence.
  
• So badly distorts what he presents as facts, that in some cases they are, in reality, the opposite of what he says.
  
• Casts judgment on those public officials who rejected knee-jerk reactions and voted for a calmer approach as "amoral." (While, hypocritically, elsewhere quoting Matthew 7:1 from the Bible)

This is extremism at its worst. I hope our decision makers are paying attention. Is this the kind of "morality" around which we will shape public policy? Surely not.

Creating a safe and welcoming environment

(Greensboro, NC) OK, let's get real. If, as has been asserted, the reason for putting filters that block access to "porn" websites on public library computers is to create a safe and welcoming environment, especially for children -- to protect their and sensitive adults' wandering eyes from the inadvertent viewing of harmful or upsetting material, then shouldn't we also block access to extreme videos?

Here is a video that shows people being burned alive in Kenya as punishment for "witchcraft." (Take this warning seriously, it is extremely graphic.)

Here is a video of people holding up freshly severed human heads. (Very graphic.)

Here is a video of a mentally unstable man electrocuting himself on a power line. (Very graphic.)

Here is a video of the bloody corpses of a family on the road after an accident, including a child lying in his own blood. (Very graphic)

Here is a video that shows abortions. (Very graphic)

All of these are greatly disturbing, even to adults. If we are going to block access to porn to protect people, is not this kind of stuff even more injurious to children and adults alike? Should we not also block these kinds of extreme videos?

More exaggerated numbers on porn at the public library

(Greensboro, NC) First there was Greensboro City Council representative Danny Thompson's exaggerated stack of porn-viewing incident reports at the Greensboro Central Public Library; now an anonymous source feeds local blogger Tony Wilkins a description of findings of a report prepared for city staff and council and Tony writes about it. His headline:

Over 700 Pornographic Visits PER DAY

Local blogger Joe Guarino follows with a post inspired by Tony in which Joe describes "700 attempted visits per day." Naturally, several commenters for whom this is just what they wanted to hear cheer the "findings" without question. No question of why the sources would want to hide anonymously behind Tony's skirt and no questions of whether or not the report actually substantiates what the anonymous source conveyed to Tony.

I like Tony. He's a good guy in a lot of ways, but that doesn't matter much here. Facts are facts and, were I him, I would be furious at my sources for making me the public face of a gross misrepresentation.

I have obtained the report and there were not 700 visits to pornographic web sites per day. As I explained at Ed Cone's blog (in response to a post by Tony), there is proper terminology to describe what log files record about internet browsing. "Hits" and "page views" are different things. A single page view will generate multiple hits The distinction between these terms is not unimportant jargon. It is key to understanding what the data means. Interchanging hits with visits is simply to misreport the data.

So should we make allowances for Tony's sources not knowing the difference? No. This was clearly explained in the report itself. Somewhere between its reading by Tony's sources and its characterization on Tony's blog, someone decided to ignore or hide this, from the report:

Individual web pages usually count as multiple or even dozens of web hits.  (for example a site that we reviewed counted as about 50 hits)

and this...

[A]ny toolbars, images, advertisements, directional buttons, etc. that exist on a single page count as separate hits.  For example, a web page that contains 100 thumbnail images will actually count as over 100 web hits because each of the thumbnails count as unique hits.

Twice now we have been asked to evaluate the nature of the "porn problem" with intentionally exaggerated data.

Here is the report:

Greensboro Public Library Internet Usage Statistics

Spencer guilty, Tabor not

From the Winston-Salem Journal:

After a nearly three-hour trial yesterday that featured often heated exchanges between attorneys, Nathan Tabor, the chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party, was found not guilty of assaulting a man during a protest early this summer in Greensboro.

But Judge Susan Bray of Guilford District Court convicted Govenor Vance Spencer, the man accused of slugging Tabor in the face, of simple assault and communicating threats. Bray did not sentence Spencer to jail time, but Spencer will have a conviction on his record and will have to pay court costs.

Yes! on garbage

(Greensboro, NC) Yes! Weekly's Jordan Green has a great rundown of the City Council's meeting yesterday to consider proposals for handling the city's garbage. Quoting Mayor Bill Knight council representative Jim Kee

“I don’t think we’re going to have the luxury of not doing anything. You’ve got an at-large community in Greensboro that’s going to read tomorrow’s paper that we’re going to spend $250 million in solid waste disposal over 25 years, and we could save $100 million. And we have District 2 that does not want to be the host of the city’s trash. I am not in favor of reopening the White Street Landfill, but we cannot sit idly and disregard other possibilities that can bring tax savings to the city, but perhaps economic development, which is definitely needed in Greensboro."

Bill Flynn is a fear mongering idiot

Bill Flynn on his radio program this morning, breathlessly speaking of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf:

"I have no evidence he was behind nine eleven, but..."

But what, Bill?

But... the George W. Bush administration invited him to work on improving U.S. - Islamic relations?

But... he helped the F.B.I. with counterterrorism efforts?

But... you think your audience are morons who can be manipulated by your fact-free fear mongering?

What an idiot.

Porno Nanny

Obscene

This is the kind of obscenity with which we should be concerning ourselves.

Morons and imbeciles, oh my!

(Greensboro, NC)

"Imbecile." "Morons."

Another out of control blogger? An opinionated alternative weekly? Some hotheaded talk radio host?

Nope.

"Imbecile" and "morons" were used by a reporter to describe unknown suspects in a news story at the News & Record.

Piedmont Publius noticed too.

Matheny & Young. Good question, right answer

(Greensboro, NC) During the discussion about putting "porn" filters on library computers at last night's city council meeting, representative Zack Matheny asked a good question of city manager Rashad Young. "There is a straight and correct answer," I was thinking to myself. Young delivered it precisely.

Opposite day at News14

Well, no.

Get a warrant. Alamance D.A. runs amok

Sam at Piedmont Publius points us to an article about Alamance County Attorney Clyde Albright going a little off the rails in reaction to Fairness Alamance, a group "dedicated to promoting fairness and equality in Alamance County," according to their facebook page.

First Albright reports a member of the group to the State Board of Elections for possible violations of the Hatch Act. The legal council for the state board was quoted as responding with "Doesn’t he know about the Hatch Act? … It’s a federal matter." Indeed.

Second, Albright makes a records request asking that UNC turn over emails from a UNC student who is the daughter of one of the Fairness Alamance principals. Really? An official sworn to uphold the Constitution wants a university to turn over emails of one of its students as public records because of the activities of her mother? Geezus, that's frightening. I hope UNC tells Albright no and to come back with a warrant if he thinks he's entitled to see this student's emails.

Small

(Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor John Robinson writes a blog post singing the praises of departing columnist Lorraine Ahearn. Unlike all his other blog posts, comments on this one are disabled.

Q&A with Danny Thompson on library porn filters

Shortly after Greensboro City Council person Danny Thompson made his surprise motion to install content filters on public library computers, I sent him the following:

Dear Honorable Council Representative Thompson,

At the August 2, 2010 meeting of the Greensboro City Council, you said, referring to the incident reports you had, "A number of them, as I said, involve people viewing pornographic websites at our Greensboro public library."

Questions:

1. How many of the incident reports were related to the viewing of objectionable material on computers?
2. How do you define "pornographic websites"?
3. Why did you not put this on the agenda so that there could be public comment?

Thanks in advance,

Yours,
Roch

I originally sent these questions on August 7th. After receiving no reply, I sent them three more times for a total of four, two to Thompson's email address and two through the contact form on the City Council web page.

Thompson has not answered.
 

Porn banned in Charlotte allowed in Greensboro libraries.

What do "porn" filters filter? I asked blogger and former Greensboro resident, now living in Charlotte, Matt Comer to test the filters at a Charlotte-Mecklenberg library. He reports that the library's filters blocked access to:

• About.com:  The 6 Secrets of Gay Anal Sex, What You Should Know and What You Should Look Out For
• AMC Filmsite: History of Sex in Cinema: The Greatest and Most Influential Sexual Films and Scenes
• Carolina Foothills Resort: Nudist resort and campground located in Chesnee, South Carolina

No matter what you may think of the subject matter, click on any of the links above and you'll see they are not obscene. Nor are they porn by any stretch of the imagination, yet, intentional or not, these are among the types of information that will get blocked by the efforts of those who want to software-block "porn" in Greensboro libraries.

Worst rap song evah: Greensboro Clam

This popped up on Greensboro 101 today:

The Fire Storm

Library internet filtering recommendations for City Council

(Greensboro, NC)

GPL respectfully asks the Council to consider a total computer management program which will filter Internet access for all children and for those adults who choose filtering, but will allow the possibility of appropriate, legally-mandated access for responsible adult customers who choose unfiltered access.

 This from the filtering recommendations city staff has come up with for City Council.
Library Internet Filtering Recommendation for City Council

Dishonest representations by the Raleigh Telegram

I received and email from Randall Gregg, the publisher of the Raleigh Telegram regarding one of my blog posts.

"Hope you are doing well.  Since we have around 300 journalists on our email list, I was wondering if we could reprint your post (with attribution of course) on the new public records law on our Raleigh Telegram website."

I replied:

"Sure, just please precede with 'As originally published at roch101.blogspot.com' with a link to the post."

Gregg did neither. He did, however, add a byline that said, "By the Raleigh Telegram."

I wrote to Gregg pointing out to him that he did not honor our agreement. On August 10th, he said he'd rather remove the article.

"I will be updating the website tomorrow and will be glad to remove the item.  Sorry you are "peeved" and for any confusion we may have caused but again, we clearly labeled it to the best of our ability.  We feel that anyone with any common sense reading it would know that you wrote it."

Gregg has yet to honor either of his promises. The article remains online with "By The Raleigh Telegram."

Rush Radio plagiarism, part VI -- CORRECTED

[CORRECTION: The byline for the Rush Radio article is "By Associated Press," a fact I overlooked when writing this post and which suggests the possibility that the article from CharlotteObserver.com was submitted to the Associated Press from where Rush Radio retrieved it, a possibility that would not, if true, make this plagiarism and would make me in error for saying so.

I leave the original post below intact for the record, with the caveat that I think this particular example, unlike other items from Rush Radio cataloged here previously, is probably not plagiarized and that I was wrong.]

Rush Radio, 94.5, continues to post news to its website that it copies from other sources  (previously, previously, previously, previously and previously):

ITEM:
From Rush Radio, 94.5, highlighted portions copied word-for-word from CharlotteObserver.com (here):

North Carolina's high unemployment rate has enabled the state to snare an additional $121 million to help homeowners who are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. The federal funding announced Wednesday comes on top of the $159 million in federal aid approved for the state last week. In both cases, North Carolina received the allocation because its unemployment rate is above the national average. The state unemployment rate was 10 percent in June. The new funding will be used to provide as much as 36 months of assistance to help unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure.

.