Investigate This: Anti-Blogger Litigation Rampant

A blogger at iQuestionAuthority.com is being sued for citing an article from the Pulitzer Prize winning Las Vegas Sun.

On his site http://iquestionauthority.com/ the blogger in question says "The paper never sent me a cease and desist or any type of complaint about me using their story. If they did not want me to share their article I would have gladly removed it instantly.I gave all credit to the writer and linked the story back to the papers original site as I always do. I never take credit for something that someone else put their hard work in to."

Describing his first notification of the suit--which he received July 15, 2010--he says, "I had an email from a reporter out of Las Vegas asking me if I had any comment on a copyright infringement lawsuit that was filed against me by XXXXXXXX for a story that was posted on my website!"

This individual is not alone, as Las Vegas Sun's corporately affiliated Las Vegas Review-Journal has apparently been busy with plenty of anti-blogging lawsuits of its own.

According to June 9th online issue of the LA Times, "roughly three dozen other websites and blogs face litigation for using Review-Journal stories without permission." The article also seems to imply that things are going to get much worse for bloggers.

Read the rest of the LA Times article for yourself here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20100609,0,7911613.column

Threatening individuals with costly legal battles is the Old School Coward's way to silence free speech. Even when the legal case brought doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, the cost of defending yourself in court can bankrupt the individual sued.

Not only that, but the threat of possible costly litigation can deter even the most conscientious citizen blogger.

And now for some classic speculative investigation:

The Las Vegas Sun is owned by Greenspun Media Group. Wikipedia, as usual, is not solid fact and requires further source verification, and these articles in particular are lacking in citation, but a cursory glance is intriguing.

These publications' pages say that Stephens Media LLC, the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "has been expanding its interactive Internet business, where it operates online sites for its newspapers and portal sites like LasVegas.com, which is licensed to Greenspun Media Group."

Likewise, the Las Vegas Sun's page notes that "editor and president Brian Greenspun, Hank's son, is a personal friend of former president Bill Clinton. While in office, Greenspun welcomed Clinton as a house guest while Clinton was fund raising in southern Nevada."

Hmm.

Investigate This: Shirley Sherrod, or Six Degrees of Jeremiah Wright

I am by nature a skeptical person, but I'm a fan of keeping track of coincidences just for the sake of a complete record.

Salon on Shirley Sherrod's civil rights activist husband Rev. Charles Sherrod: here.

Salon praises Charles Sherrod for his work as a "leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who served on the front lines of the nonviolent civil rights movement in the early 1960s."

Someone posted this: FBI File on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which says

"The FBI maintained a file on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) because Communists were believed to be infiltrating its leadership. This file is comprised of field reports from nineteen cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and several others. The national offices of the SNCC were in Atlanta and represents the largest of the documents."

The .pdf file that should be visible on the FBI freedom of information act site is blocked. But the website verifies that there are 2,887 pages on the organization here.

I'm sure everyone probably knows this stuff. I didn't.

Back to Rev. Charles Sherrod. Here is an announcement of him and Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaking at Michigan State University as pillars of civil rights activism.

From MSU's website on the 2008 event:

"EAST LANSING, Mich. — Four nationally recognized civil rights leaders will visit Michigan State University in February to participate in a lecture series honoring those who fought the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s.

The four, including the first woman elected bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, are taking part in the eighth annual Visiting Faculty Lecture Series, “Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey.”

Sponsored by the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, the series will feature one speaker a week during February, which is Black History Month. The first lecture is Feb. 7. All talks are at 5 p.m. in the MSU Kellogg Center.

This year’s schedule follows.

Feb. 7 – The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He is considered one of the nation's leading authorities on and advocates for social, spiritual and economic justice. His topic is “Sibling Rivalry and the Children of Abraham.” Wright will speak in Big Ten Room A.

Feb. 14 – The Rev. Charles Sherrod, co-founder and field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His civil rights work began in 1954 when, at age 17, he and a friend attended a segregated church service in Petersburg, Va. His topic: “Social Change and Student Power.” Sherrod will speak in the Kellogg Center Auditorium.

Feb. 21 – The Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of the Friendship-West Baptist Church of Dallas. He is a dynamic speaker known for working with the youth in his community. He is well-known in Dallas for giving “inspirational vitamins” to the youth who participate in his Saturday-night services. His topic is “From Cacophony to Choir: Finding Resonance.” Haynes will speak in Big Ten Room A.

Feb. 28 – Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A Baltimore native, she is recognized as a leader in religious, social, economic and civic affairs. Her topic is “Embracing Africa: The Cultural Pangea.” She will speak in Big Ten Room A.

For a list of sponsors and more information, visit the Web at www.com.msu.edu/pub-rel/SlaverytoFreedom/STF_feb2008.pdf. High-resolution photos of the speakers are available by contacting oswald@msu.edu.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving."

As we know Obama's pastor Rev. Wright has openly expressed racism against: whites, Jews, and Italians, has a severe issue with the USA, and is also the networking superstar for all things Chicago, a place where it really is who you know not what you know. Rev. Wright is also a known preacher of black liberation theology, an ideology that doesn't really work well with the concept of equal rights to begin with.

Not sure what to make of all this, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that the Obama Administration didn't know exactly who Shirley Sherrod was and what she beleived when they fired her.