Free Speech? SHUT UP! Free Press? GET OUT!

Think Progress alerts us to the news that a 61 year librarian was cited for trespassing on Denver city property today. Her crime? Holding a sign that read:"McCain=Bush." That's right--her "trespass" was possession of this poster board. Standing outside a city building where McCain was staging a farce billed as a town hall meeting, Carol Kreck was told if she 86'd the sign she could stay: if she insisted on exercising free speech--as she rightfully did--she'd be ticketed. Our heroine was walked off the premises and told she'd be arrested if she dared to return. Take a look at the vid: city officials booted a citizen because secret service agents "asked them to." This is the way our rights end: not with a bang but a whimper.

7/11/08: UPDATE: The Secret Service insists they did not ask Kreck to be removed: that request came from McCain's staff. Shame on Denver. Shame on McCain.




News Update: Zoriah the U.S. photojournalist (linked by this blog 7/4) unembedded after he took photos that showed the unidentifiable remains of US military and Iraqi victims of a suicide attack in Anbar 6/26, writes today that the Marine Corps continues to ban him : "I am not allowed in any areas controlled by the Marines, or on any of their operations." He notes that losing "the ability to embed is the equivalent of losing your ability to report from Iraq. This is the reason it is important to fight for the rights of embedded journalists to document freely." Zoriah maintains that he has followed military guidelines. It seems HIS "trespass" was showing the ugliness and horror of war. It's looking as though Zoriah may be forced to leave Iraq entirely; he continues to contest this.

New News Update: Reports are that Zoriah is back stateside.