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.

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News & Record regurgitation

I really don't get it. The News & Record's "article" says its from "staff reports." No, it's not. It is from a press release, nearly word-for-word

Highlighted portions of the N&R article are copied word-for-word from the UNC-G press release:
---------------

GREENSBORO — Computer security breaches at two UNCG clinics allowed unauthorized access to information about more than 2,500 people [individuals], the university said today in a news release.

It is unknown whether any information was actually taken from the computers.

The university has mailed letters to the last known addresses of those whose information was exposed and posted notices on the clinics’ websites. The two computers infected with malware via the Internet were in the university’s Speech and Hearing Center and Psychology Clinic, according to the news release.

Although the problems were discovered days apart in June, they are believed to be unrelated. Employees of the clinics and Information Technology Services have been working since then to determine what records were vulnerable and who might be impacted [affected]. It is not known how long the breaches lasted before detection.

“It is our responsibility to secure the information of individuals who come to us for health services, and that is a responsibility we take very seriously” [said] David H. Perrin, provost and executive vice chancellor, stated in the release. “We apologize to everyone whose records were vulnerable and ask them to closely monitor their credit for unauthorized activity. We fixed the security breaches as soon as they were detected, and we have taken steps to minimize the potential for future breaches.”

If you believe that your personal health information may have been exposed by the breach at the Speech and Hearing Center and you have questions or concerns, call the center’s toll-free number, (877) 550-6012, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday or between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Friday.

For more information about the breach at the Psychology Clinic, call the clinic’s toll-free number, (887) 550-6008, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays, beginning Wednesday.

The bulk of the impacted records are in the Speech and Hearing Center, where a breach was found June 10 and corrected the same day. The compromised computer was used for billing and contained records for about 2,300 people who have received services from the center since 1997. Vulnerable data included names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, telephone numbers, insurance companies, insurance ID numbers, group numbers, diagnosis codes, procedure codes and charges.

The problem at the Psychology Clinic, involving malware on a computer used to document incoming phone calls, was detected and fixed June 7. The vulnerable computer contained a spreadsheet with names, dates of birth, telephone numbers, cities of residence, whether or not callers had insurance and dates of contact from about 240 callers between Sept. 20, 2006, and Sept. 22, 2009. In some cases, the spreadsheet also contained reference to the caller or caller’s family member as “client,” symptoms reported by the caller, reference to an inquiry about testing or evaluation and reference to “therapist/treatment/provider and/or services.” No social security numbers appeared on the spreadsheet.

The Psychology Clinic computer also held 18 phone intake/client data forms from March 2009 through June 2010. The forms included names, ages, dates of birth, telephone numbers, addresses, insurance providers (if any), social security numbers and dates of contact. In some cases, one or more of the following types of information also appeared on the form: therapist, case number, status of previous treatment, service requested and description of the problem.

A librarian on filters

I’m the Digital Futures Manager for the San Jose Public Library. A couple of years ago, a filtering challenge was brought by one of our city council members to the library. We were told to filter, we said no, and we embarked upon an extensive study about the effectiveness of filters, which you can find at: http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/sjpl/commission/agen0208_report.pdf. The overall results? Internet filtering software **does not work**. [More]

Elvis at the Greensboro Coliseum 1972

This popped up on Greensboro 101 this morning: Elvis at the Greensboro Coliseum in 1972. (Is that Jim Melvin in the front row at the 0:36 mark?)

Danny Thompson exaggerates with his big stack

At the August 2nd, 2010 meeting of the Greensboro City Council, member Danny Thompson said he wanted to discuss "Disturbing things that go on at the public library."  He held up a thick stack of papers and said:

"More than a hundred incidences that go in the public library... Many of them, a great majority of them, and I have, this right here are the incident reports of anything from indecent behavior to looking at inappropriate websites. These are just six months of this year at just the downtown Greensboro public library."

Thompson then proceeded to make a motion that "We institute blocking software devices on our public library computers whereby access is denied and not able to be accessed." (video, 01:48:50)

The News & Record dutifully regurgitated Thompson's claims of what was in his stack of papers without checking it out. So I did.

I requested the incident reports. I received the Lankford Protective Services incident reports through June, 2010. Here's how they break down:

39 sleeping
28 disorderly conduct/fighting/assault
21 viewing inappropriate sites*/pornography/indecent behavior at computer
[As the News & Record's editor John Robinson correctly notes, only one of these involved a minor possibly being exposed to inappropriate content.]
16 stolen/lost items
13 trespassing/loitering/panhandling
12 eating
10 wanted persons
9 drug/alcohol
8 indecent behavior not at a computer
6 skipping school/runaway/missing person
5 patron complaints
5 bathing/shaving
4 other
3 medical
3 vandalism
3 rules violations
2 verbal altercations
2 moving furniture
1 surveillance of a man with "big loops in ears" participating in Food not Bombs feeding of the hungry.

To bring the obvious to your attention, had Thompson wanted to provide accurate information to his constituents, he would not have waved a stack of 190 reports, nearly ten times bigger than what he was talking about, as a pretext for his policy proposal. Thompson resorted to exaggeration and deception to justify his misguided and overreaching proposal. Doing so was misleading and contemptuous of the voters.

[* I am, as of yet, unable to find any information about what guidelines are used to determine if a site is inappropriate.]

Rush Radio 94.5 plagiarism, part IV

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

ITEM:
From Rush Radio, 94.5, highlighted portions copied word-for-word from the News & Record (here):

GREENSBORO, NC- A special meeting will be held Thursday to discuss the selection of a site for a new southeast-area elementary school. The meeting comes after the Guilford County Board of Commissioners rejected the school board's chosen site last month. Angry parents have said the location off Stewart Mill Road chosen for the new school is too far east. 

They say that the new school's primary purpose was to relieve overcrowding at Alamance Elementary but that the new site would draw students from Alamance, Sedalia and McLeansville elementary schools. School board members have said Alamance still will be helped and that with the land for their chosen site available at $907,000, the purchase is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

ITEM:
From Rush Radio, 94.5, highlighted portions copied word-for-word from the News & Record (here):

WINSTON-SALEM, NC- Three armed robberies and two attempted robberies were reported in the city in less than 36 hours. Winston-Salem police are looking for suspects in the following cases:

An armed robbery at Adam's Market at 3800 Northampton Drive at 6:41 p.m. Saturday. The store owner fired several shots at the suspect but missed. The suspect ran out of the store and did not shoot back. 

An armed robbery at Jay's One Stop at 3965 Old Greensboro Road shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday. A lone man demanded cash and left on foot. 

An attempted armed robbery at Wing Zone at 2862 Reynolda Road [was reported] shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday. Police said the suspect demanded money. He got none, then left.   

An armed robbery at Bojangles' Restaurant at 3300 N. Patterson Ave. at 11:55 p.m. Sunday. The suspect fired his handgun outside after leaving the restauran [sic, misspelling in the News & Record original] with an undisclosed amount of money. 

An attempted armed robbery at Quality Mart No. 37 at 4995 Country Club Road at 2:08 a.m. today. The suspect displayed a gun and ordered the clerk not to hit the alarm. The clerk tried to hit the panic button but instead pushed the fuel cutoff switch. The suspect ran out without any money. 

No injuries were reported in any of these incidents, and police did not say how much money was stolen. Police did not say if any of these incidents were related. Anyone with information about these incidents are asked to call police at 773-7700 or Crimestoppers at 727-2800.

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Rush Radio 94.5 still stealing news without attribution

Rush Radio, 94.5 continues to copy news from other sources and present it as their own (previously and previously):

ITEM:
From Rush Radio, 94.5, highlighted portions copied word-for-word from the News & Record (here):

GREENSBORO, NC- Ground has been broken on a new housing complex for students at UNC-G. The Province is scheduled to open in August of next year and house 600 residents. The new construction did not come without contention, however. It was the subject of heated debate, neighborhood meetings and even a protest petition. Some residents were concerned about the impact such a large-scale student development would have on their neighborhood, which already has a majority rental population. As recently as last week, “Save College Hill” signs remained posted in at least a couple of yards. [But] Despite the opposition, the City Council in April voted unanimously to allow the project.

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

GREENSBORO, NC- Police in Greensboro have arrested four people [Friday morning] in connection to a burned puppy found earlier this month. Greensboro Police were called after the 4-month-old lab/pit bull mix was taken to a veterinary office on July 17. The dog, named Phoenix by vets, has burns over 45-50 percent of his body. The injuries were severely infected. 

Investigators believe the crime happened in a residential area on Llano Place near Maury Lane. On Friday, three juveniles and one adult [teenager] arrived at the magistrate's office to face charges. The adult [teen] has been identified as 17-year-old Harvey Gales. Investigators say three of the arrestees are from Greensboro and one is from Richmond County [North Carolina]. All those arrested face charges of [Gales is charged with] Felony Cruelty to Animals, Felony Burning of Personal Property and Felony Conspiracy to Harm Personal Property. 

A fifth person is also being interviewed as a potential suspect.

ITEM:
From Rush Radio, 94.5, highlighted portions copied word-for-word from WGHP Fox8* (here):

GREENSBORO, NC- Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young announced today that Ken Miller will be named the next chief of the Greensboro Police Department [Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young announced on Friday.] Miller is currently [was] a senior deputy chief with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Miller has served with Charlotte-Mecklenburg for 21 years and in law enforcement for more than 25 years. Miller's [his] first day on the job for Greensboro will be September 1. 

A press conference is scheduled for Monday. 

Miller and Lisa G. Womack, former police chief of the Elgin (Ill.) Police Department, were the top two candidates for the position. According to the city, more than 200 candidates applied for the job. Officials narrowed the field to six, all of which were interviewed personally before choosing the final two.

[* Note: the first two paragraphs are nearly verbatum from the City of Greensboro press release, a source that neither news outlet, WGHP nor Rush Radio, acknowledge.]


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