Banana Republic or Peach State?
Georgia, y’all.
Georgia House Speaker and avid Republican David Ralston, a lawyer, got himself in a bit of a twist this year. The Atlanta Journal Constitution revealed that he had extensively used his legislative privilege to keep legal cases from going to trial. Lawyers in the legislature have the privilege of postponing their dockets while the legislature is in session or on business. Members frequently sign-on and are paid to be co-counsel so the cases don’t get to trial for years. Ralston got caught with his hand in the horrible-injustice-to-victims jar.
Well, Honey, that just got the whole Georgia Republican party in a tizzy. The problem wasn’t with their elected official, the problem was with … oh yeah, you got it: the messenger.
So the Republicans proposed some legislation to fix nasty reporters who stick their noses in important people’s business. They think reporters should have ethical standards laws. Written, of course, by the very people reporters write about.
As a sidenote: most of you know I was a political columnist for a local newspaper for many years. Someone who was miffed at me for writing something they didn’t like asked my boss exactly what was my job description. She responded without missing a beat, “To go find out what people are doing and make them stop it.”
That’s what we do, so this proposed legislation, where you can even be certified as an ethical reporter (hello Fox News!), consists of all manner of things meant to trample the First Amendment, including …
If approved, the bill would also mandate that anyone interviewed by the media would be able to request and receive copies of photographs and audio and video recordings taken by reporters and photographers. Such copies would have to be provided free of cost, even though state and local governments are allowed to charge the public for copies of any documents it provides.
If a media outlet refuses to provide the copies, it would be subject to a lawsuit and a civil penalty, under the bill.
And the real kicker? The Georgia Legislature exempted itself from the Open Records Act so you cannot get a damn thing from them.
If I slander you in the damn newspaper, you have a remedy: sue me. Our ethical standards are truth, justice, and the American way, by gawd.
I kinda suspect these Georgia fellas skimmed over the First Amendment in their excitement to get to the Second, which makes their winkies bigger. The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” That that includes Georgia.
Thanks to Ralph for the heads up.
AlaDAMNbama the septic system of morality! Which aint too surprising when you consider the number of rabid religious people live there!
1Until the first of the year, Ralston was my State Rep: and know several folks who have been badly hurt by his abuse of the “legislative” continuances: he’s an “ol’ rat in the barn” as Dad says. I will note he has usually kept the lid on the crazier “religious liberty” (i.e. permits discrimination for LGBT folks, Moslems and anyone else they hate)moves (bad for bidness…), but even his party has had to take notice. I’ve moved into Mark Meadows district in NC to look after my 93 year old dad. (BTW, he’s a WW@ vet and former Letter Carrier, and hates the GOP with a passion..)
Of course, the GAGOP party line is that criticizing the Lege, much less reporting on it, is criminal: Last week I had a GA Republican operative call me “seditious” for discussing the clear criminality of the Current Occupant of the Oval Office.
If you want to know what this would be totalitarian state’s Republican leadership’S opinion of the public’s right to know actually is, the case of citizen Journalist Nydia Tisdale: a self described Republican “housewife with a camera”, she started videotaping local political events and posting them on YouTube without comment, unedited. The city councils 0f tony ATL suburbs Roswell and Alpharetta GA tried to keep her from taping: she and the state’s First Amendment Foundation sued, and she won…In ’14, in the leadup to the election, she set up cam and started taping a public Republican Rally at a tourist attraction, with permission, and when singled out by a candidate, was grabbed, frogmarched off by a deputy grabbing her breasts, and charged with multiple crimes. She was acquitted, and they recharged her with “disorderly conduct”. She is appealing https://www.youtube.com/user/nydiatisdale
And, of course, these are the people who decry “political correctness”. I’ve been a journalist in small town Georgia, and had seen that the local power structures will do crimes to avoid public scrutiny.
2As someone who also worked in the Nooz Bidness in the Peach State and covered the Ga. Senate back when many of its member actually had a brain, I can tell you…my home state has gone to heck in a handbasket.
As for the Second Amendment and legislators’ winkies, I well remember being in an elevator with a legislator (whose IQ matched my shoe size) who told me he could ‘protect me’ should any bad apples get on with us….and then pulled a teeny tiny derringer out of his pocket. There’s nothing quite like being in a confined space with an idiot waving a gun (no matter how small) around!
3And exactly where, and how, will blogs, such as this one, fit it to the scheme of things?
4Isn’t this still an accepted practice for the Texas Lege?
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