Norfolk vice mayor’s attempt to silence website unites political bloggers
By JR Hoeft | Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | Catch-AllYesterday, the Virginian-Pilot reported that a Norfolk judge was issuing a court-order to have the web site may4thcounts.com taken down, but today reports that the judge has reversed his ruling.
Vivian Paige has been all over this story and reported the reversal first on her blog.
Eileen from VB Dems also has a very good post on the 1st amendment ramifications of the original decision.
For what it’s worth, in my capacity as president of Blogs United, I issued the following statement:
“Blogs United is very concerned whenever on-line, independent political speech is called into question, and is deeply troubled that GoDaddy.com broke its contract with their client at the first sign of potential trouble.
“Ethical and responsible information on-line has transformed politics and political accountability, so any threat to restrict that speech is a potential threat to our first amendment freedoms.
“In our view, speculation about unethical behavior by a politician is a very serious charge and must be thoroughly investigated, not summarily dismissed and brushed aside because a politician is uncomfortable.
“We are pleased Judge Charles Poston reversed his ruling and sided with freedom and accountability.”
A portion of that statement is included in today’s article.
In this case, political speech was protected, but city funds were wasted in the effort over a politician who felt poliically vulnerable. It’s a travesty that some political figures look at the public treasury as their personal bank account.
What’s equally pathetic is GoDaddy.com’s response to all this. Instead of conducting their own investigation into the matter, at the first sign of trouble, they not only drop the site, but violate the anonymity contract agreed upon by the client and the web host!
GoDaddy.com just lost a customer. I have several web sites registered through them – never again.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
Comments
16 Responses to "Norfolk vice mayor’s attempt to silence website unites political bloggers"
I cannot fathom what possessed Judge Poston to order that the website be removed fro the public domain in the first place. His initial reaction to the City Attorney and Councilman’s request should have been, “Are you crazy? Go read the First Amendment” not “ya, okay I’ll silence free speech during a political campaign.” At least he had the good sense to reverse himself, although I bet he had 100 judges and lawyers call him yesterday to ask him if he lost his mind and remind him that this is the United States, not Venezuela or Iran.
The big issue here to me JR is not godaddy.com’s stupidy, but the larger ramification of a city attorney being used as a pawn in the middle of a political campaign by a member of city council. He has a duty to say NO to a request from a councilman that he knows is outside the bounds of his service to the City of Norfolk. In the Pilot today he vigorously defends his decision to insert himself into the middle of a political campaign. It reeks of ineptitude and corruption.
Ron,
I don’t disagree that there is the issue of a city attorney not correctly doing his job. I did imply that the vice mayor using city funds to pay for his personal politcal concerns is unseemly at best; a city attorney worth his salt should have recognized this…unless there was undo pressure by the vice mayor on the city attorney.
For bloggers, though, the issue of a web host turning tail at the first sign of trouble and dropping both the website and an anonymity agreement is also a big deal. I wrote this post looking at this more through the lense of a blogger and the ramifications to bloggers than as an observer of Norfolk politics.
The two are intertwined…they can’t be separated or diminished like you’re suggesting. One point is not more important than the other because they both strike at the heart of the 1st Amendment and the rights of citizens to demand accountability from their government.
Jim –
As the site is still not up this morning, I’m worried that the damage may be done, and this issue may have been unfortunately put to bed by the judge’s first ruling. There are plenty of things that concern me here, but GoDaddy’s actions aren’t among them.
I can’t agree with your negative assesment of GoDaddy’s reaction to the court ruling. I’m a client of theirs as well, and I don’t know what else they could have done. When they become aware of a court order, which I’m sure happens pretty often, I don’t think they have any choice in the matter. They could try to investigate and fight and contest every situation, but I bet they just find it makes more business sense to follow the court orders without question.
Also, I don’t see where they voilated any anonimity, it appears the website owner is still unknown and the civil suit was actually brought against “Disgruntled Citizen”.
Brad – the site is up – has been since late last night.
As for GoDaddy – not only did they take down the site, but they also exposed the original registrant of the domain. Originally, when looking at the registrant, the information showed Domains by Proxy. After, it showed the registrant. Interestingly enough, whoever registered the domain thought that might happen so they used a fake name, Disgruntled Citizen, a fake address and a fake phone number.
Hopefully with the additional press on this site now the truth will come out about Burfoot’s questionable dealings. Norfolks is a fine city. Having criminal activity like this will do nothing but damage its ability to grow and provide opportunity for jobs to its citizens. What is the rest of the city council’s opinion of the situation is what I’d like to know.
Brad – I just checked the site again – it’s not up now.
JR – I completely understand your misgivings about and focus on the conduct of the website host. They are a large business, probably get these orders on a daily basis and must have a business practice that simply follows the judicial orders rather than questions them. Probably has to do with what it would cost to get all the lawyers involved. As a practical matter, I don’t see how a Norfolk Circuit Judge could tell godaddy.com what to do. Godaddy.com is a national or even international business, not some mom and pop doing business in Wards Corner. A federal judge would have jurisdiction, I suppose, but not a local circuit judge. Whatever.
We both have long experience in politics and the judge’s initial decision – to silence political speech, literally on a whim – was so shocking and outrageous to me that I just can’t get over it.
Perhaps Bloggers United should take a look at the laws of Virginia and determine whether they provide you with the protections and liberties guaranteed to you by the Constitution to ensure that some loopy judge doesn’t shut one of you down because he doesn’t like what you say or how you say it or when you say it.
Thank goodness the 1st Amendment looks to be holding strong. However, when we analyze the ramifications of what has and can happen, we need to be concerned with what “business pressure” might do to harm our Freedom of Speech. Sometimes, groups with political clout can lose the battle and still win the war.
Free Speech cases often speak of a “chilling effect”. How many cases does godaddy.com face before they stop paying attention to what kind of judge ordered what and why before they just blindly oblige. Godaddy.com needs freedom of speech as well as to feed their families. The temptation will be to concentrate on their immediate ability to make money and excuse incursions on the freedom necessary for their clients. They need to know that the loss of that freedom just means a slower death.
Threats are a good thing, it puts them(godaddy.com)on notice. It certainly wouldn’t hurt for Burfoot to have to face the music for his part either. However, after a robust reaction, perhaps Bearing Drift might want to consider approaching Godaddy.com along with other associated bloggers and air concerns and learn about godaddy.com’s business & legal concerns. Maybe discuss what can be done to better protect our freedom of speech and prevent any chilling effect.
Its nice to see “unity” on this issue. I wish there were more…
This unfit for prime time VM should be publicly flogged, shamed and humiliated.
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