Oops is in a way how FBC Jax Watchdog was robbed of his anonymity.
Formerly anonymous blogger Thomas A. Rich's identity was made public after an unnecessary investigation whose details are still being unearthed in court.
Although some evidence pertaining to the involvement of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey was somehow inadvertently destroyed.
Really, and that destruction is cited as part of an argument against deposing Corey as part of the proceedings.
"Oops!" indeed.
Another injustice.
A Florida federal district court refused this week to dismiss the claim by blogger Tom Rich (FBC Jax Watchdog) that Assistant Fla. State Attorney Stephen Siegel violated Rich's right to speak anonymously, and trampled on the Establishment Clause because defendants had no secular purpose for their actions.
The lawsuit alleges Siegel issued subpoenas that helped Jacksonville police officer Robert Hinson -- who was a member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonvilla, Fla. -- identify Rich when there was no evidence of criminal activity.
Dismissed in the same action were civil claims against State Attorney Angela Corey for her office’s role.
Rich’s claims against the police officer and against First Baptist were unaffected because they weren’t involved in this motion to dismiss.
Emerging standards for unmasking anonymous bloggers were certainly not met in Rich's case.
To prevail in this instance, Rich must now prove the violations he alleges. But even at this juncture, the case is a caution for those who would twist legal authority to unmask an anonymous blogger without compelling legal justification. Abuse of power has a price.
[H/T: Religion Clause]
Anderson Cooper's series, "Scientology: A history of violence," starts next week, but he's already the target of "some sort of organized email campaign" from the declining "church."
BTW, Cooper explains:
For the record, I just want to point out that this series is not about the beliefs or activities of the Church of Scientology. It is not about the religion or the vast majority of Scientologists. This series simply has to do with what some former high ranking church officials say went on within the upper management of the church, and what happened to them when they left the church.
More not-quite-secrets anymore unmasked?
We'll be watching, just in case.
Hiring veteran journalists to counter-investigate the St. Petersburg Times was a strategy with something of a reverse twist. Scientology is under scrutiny in Australia [1,2,3], headed for the silver screen in Germany and still on the pages of U.S. news publications [1,2,3].
Just for example, you understand.
All of the well-known Scientology strategies keep applying, as makers of the film "Bis Nichts Mehr Bleibt" (Until Nothing Remains) illustrated when they reported via the Guardian:
The film team said it had been "bombarded" with phone calls and emails from the organisation during production. The head of the Southwest German broadcasting organisation, Carl Bergengruen who was involved in the project, said Scientology had "tried via various means to discover details about the film" and that the film crew was even tailed by a Scientology representative.
"We are fearful that the organisation will try to use all legal means to try to stop the film being shown," he said.
The film itself sounds like a classical Scientology exit story with an especially tragic conclusion:
According to the makers of Until Nothing Remains, the €2.5m (£2.3 m) drama, which is due to air in a prime-time slot at the end of March, is based on the true story of Heiner von Rönns, who left Scientology and suffered the subsequent break-up of his family.
Scientology calls the film false and intolerant, and distributed flyers at a Hamburg preview, accusing the filmmakers of aiming to "create a mood of intolerance and discrimination against a religious community."
All of that effort to defeat critics while building attractive homes for the church. Yet as PZ Meyers pointed out from his reading of the NY Times investigation, they're apparently shrinking:
The church is vague about its membership numbers. In 11 hours with a reporter over two days, Mr. Davis, the church's spokesman, gave the numbers of Sea Org members (8,000), of Scientologists in the Tampa-Clearwater area (12,000) and of L. Ron Hubbard's books printed in the last two and a half years (67 million). But asked about the church's membership, Mr. Davis said, "I couldn't tell you an exact figure, but it's certainly, it's most definitely in the millions in the U.S. and millions abroad."
He said he did not know how to account for the findings in the American Religious Identification Survey that the number of Scientologists in the United States fell from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008.
If you make projections from those numbers, as Meyers did, they appear to have done some magnificent architectural restoration without building a future.
The opening lines of the preview refer to Scientologist Tom Cruise’s role in the movie "Valkyrie." There was considerable tension while Valkyrie was being filmed. At one point, according to the London Daily Mail, Thomas Gandow, Sect Commissioner for the German Evangelical Church, "said the film is propaganda for Scientology" and described Cruise was the 'Goebbels of Scientology.'"
Follow the Exodus from Egypt one tweet at a time. "The story comes to life" March 16-29, at @TweetTheExodus. This corresponds to Rosh Chodesh Nisan. It culminates with the crossing of the Red Sea. Passover begins at sundown on March 29.
Rabbi Oren Hayon explains via Facebook that, "collaborating with Jewish professionals around the country, all of whom will play the part of one of the Exodus’s major characters, we will create an experience that allows our followers to reenact this inspiring story in totally new ways."
Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found among the topics that don't get enough journalistic attention:
Religion and spirituality: 41% of Americans say there is not enough coverage of religious and spiritual issues. Women (44%) are more likely than men (37%) to seek more coverage of this area; young adults ages 18-29 (49%) are more likely than those over age 50 (35%) to say this; and bloggers (50%) are more likely than non-bloggers (40%) to say this. Race/ethnicity is also a factor, with African-Americans (57%) significantly more likely than both whites (38%) and Hispanics (43%) to say they would like to see more coverage of religion and spirituality.
With the announcement timed to coincide with the Conservative Political Action Conference, which opened today in Washington D.C., the conservative blog Hot Air has been acquired from Michelle Malkin by Salem Communications.
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) conservative political activism is visible in the fretwork of that deal. Salem's board of directors features "Judge" Paul Pressler, architect of the SBC conservative takeover. Among Salem's syndicated radio shows iare Richard Land Live, whose host is chief of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and the Albert Mohler Program, whose host is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Mediaite alludes to that commercial political/religious binding when it writes:
Salem Communication defines itself as a leading U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher targeting audiences interested in Christian and family-themed content and conservative values. Perhaps their most relevant property to this transaction is Townhall.com which claims itself to be the #1 conservative website. The “About Us” section of its website claims “Townhall.com pulls together political commentary and analysis from over 100 leading columnists and opinion leaders, research from 100 partner organizations, conservative talk-radio and a community of millions of grassroots conservatives.”
Debt-burdened Salem was "branded a 'bottom rung' company by Moody's Investors Service" because is saddled with "the weight of $320 million in debt." And HotAir brings to that business mix a large audience injection. with attendant potential for increased advertising revenue:
Hot Air ranks as the seventh-largest conservative website over the past three months, according to rankings from the Web information company Alexa — though the rankings include Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and Drudge Report
Townhall, meanwhile, had the 12th-largest audience over the same time.
We'll see whether the ideological synergies are sufficiently financial.
The Louisiana Baptist Message's new pay-to-read Web site apparently skidded on launch. They have rolled out a lurid red, top-heavy, new Web design which combines mostly subscriber-only content, some of which is free elsewhere, with incomplete sections (Plan of Salvation, Focus, Image Archive, Links of Interest).
A Southern Baptist official state newspaper with an empty Salvation section?
It is too early to draw lasting conclusions, but the early returns are not encouraging.
We greeted as suicidal their announcement last year of pay-wall plans. And they're not disappointing us. The Missouri Word & Way saw a slight decline (-8.18%) in Web traffic while the North Carolina Biblical Recorder saw a sharp increase (+160.7%) during the period of sharp Louisiana Baptist Message decline(-55.9%). The yearly change percentages are +428.77% for Word & Way, +105.84% for the Biblical Recorder and -19.02% for the Baptist Message.
The Baptist Message changes also disrupted existing links to its earlier content. For example, their redesign broke the links to a Louisiana Baptist Messenger Editor Kelly Boggs editorial in CounterFactual Kelly Boggs.
The combined effects of putting up a pay wall, redesign/launch errors and uninspiring content are likely to keep the Baptist Message in the Web readership basement. Or below.
Should they be nominated for Web Pages That Suck?
We will follow their experiment with flagging interest.
Sandy Springs, Ga., slowed the Church of Scientology's dramatic 2009 growth by denying a rezoning required to expand a former office building into their Georgia headquarters.
Ever aggressive, Scientology filed two lawsuits on Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
The church filed religious discrimination complaints in U.S. District Court on Wednesday and Fulton County Superior Court on Thursday.
Both suits contend that the city infringed on the church’s religious rights in the City Council's vote Dec. 15 that approved the rezoning of the building at Roswell Road and Glenridge Drive but denied the church’s request to add a fourth floor by enclosing a basement parking garage, saying there wasn’t enough parking.
The pre-lawsuit Scientology vs. Sandy Springs story was blogged in detail by xenubarb at Daily Kos.
Conflict and Scientology go hand-in-hand. Remember last year's dramatic exits, legal reversals, impending movie, investigations and media takedowns?
Ed Brayton at ScienceBlogs writes about another Scientology lawsuit.
In this one, a politically active New Jersey a businessman is being sued for allegedly attempting to force Scientology upon his employees.
Michael Deak of My CentralJersey.com writes:
Calling a lawsuit brought against his business as "replete with misrepresentations and outright lies,'' a new member of the Borough Council is denying the charges, including one that an employee was fired for not becoming a member of the Church of Scientology.
John Buckley, who on New Year's Day was sworn into a three-year term as a councilman after winning a seat in the November election, said he and his company, Open House Direct "will vigorously defend against these unfounded claims and to also demonstrate that this is nothing but an attempt to harass us and to hurt our ability to do business.''
Three former employees — Maurice Grays, John Knapp and Larry Kolakowski — last month filed suit in Superior Court seeking legal relief, claiming they were victims of a hostile work environment and retaliation at the company on Hamilton Street.
Add to these the threatened Scientology suit in France against the Daughters of Saint Paul [which we blogged about earlier this month] and you have the makings of another fascinating year of watching Scientology-in-action.
Scientology blundered toward the new year with a pugilistic response to questions about why three of its top spiritual achievers publicly left the cult, er, church.
Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin of the St. Petersburg Times wrote that "Geir Isene of Norway and Americans Mary Jo Leavitt and Sherry Katz" announced their split with Scientology:
Isene left first, a decision that emboldened Leavitt, who inspired Katz. Such departures are rare among the church's elite group of OT VIIIs, who are held up as role models in Scientology. The three each told the St. Petersburg Times that they had spent decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach the church's spiritual pinnacle.
All three stressed their ongoing belief in Scientology and say they remain grateful for how it helped them. Yet they took to the Internet — an act strongly discouraged by church leaders, who decry public airing of problems — to share their reasons for leaving. They said they hoped it would resonate within the Scientology community.
Scientology's response was similar in assaultive tone to the reaction to Catholic Online [here]. Tommy Davis of Scientology wrote in a letter to the Times:
Your biased approach to stories regarding my religion is by now well documented. You, Joe Childs in particular, actively seek out only those individuals who have something negative to say about the Church; if they do not fit your agenda then you attempt to coach them and coax them into doing so by "educating" them about Scientology until you have "adjusted" their viewpoint accordingly and when that does not work you simply put words in their mouth. This is your pattern, which was unknown to the Church until recently, and has been your modus operandi for the better part of two decades.
All this fists-up rhetoric from an organization whose evangelism is so slickly finished it puts most of the competition to shame. Consider this leaked, internal push for their Ideal Org program. Maybe it is a little too long. And doesn't mention the V-like Ideal Org uniforms. But consider:
Okey-dokey. You too can help convert your friends to a money-sucking program that promises mastery of immortality and if you or they try to leave, discipline may get a lot rougher than denial of communion.
It depends, as with other publications. The American Press Institute and ITZBelden surveyed 2,400 U.S. newspaper executives. Only 51% think pay walls will work and they have clear ideas about how many paying online subscribers [.pdf] (presentation slides [.pdf]) to expect:
Respondents report a wide range of online subscription charges (from $1 to $27.50 a month), yet they report surprisingly uniform levels of uptake on subscriptions, typically 1 percent to 3 percent of print circulation -- regardless of price.
Even these survey results may be overly optimistic because, as Nieman Lab observes, "ITZ Publishing consults for Steve Brill’s pay-for-news firm Journalism Online, which just touted the results as an 'API study' without noting its business interest."
The study certainly does not suggest that that small publications can readily benefit from throwing pay walls between Web users and content with which they may already be dissatisfied.
Indeed, another recent survey found that just 5% of online users are willing to pay for content. Whereas "74 per cent of those surveyed said if their favourite news service started charging to access content online they would switch to a free alternative."
For nonprofit publications which actually have special value to their readers, there is a half-step with potential. The Texas Baptist Standard is almost trying it now and has some generalized, high-visibility support. Their E3 product offers enhanced content at a low price, and buried in their marketing points is:
Gratitude: Online news is free to you, but not free to produce. An E3 subscription expresses user-supported gratitude for the value of online news.
Marketing a truly enhanced version of a news product as a way to support the good work is a legitimate strategy. If the product is good enough. Simply put, the for-profit freemium model can probably be fruitfully adapted to nonprofit solicitation strategies.
Persuading to our daughters that heroine Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga: New Moon isn't someone "any young girl should aspire to be" may be far easier than dealing with Belle de Jour.
Bella's boyfriend is a pathetic, nonexistent vampire. Bella doesn't exist either, for that matter, no matter how hard twihards may wish.
Whereas Dr. Brooke Magnanti is "a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol," England. She proclaims herself to have worked as a prostitute, to have blogged it anonymously (until she "outed" herself) at Belle de Jour and to be the author of the bestselling books about her now not-so-secret life.
Sister Carrie was a scandal of a Theodore Dreiser novel because the heroine wasn't punished for her indiscretions. Whereas Maganti is a towering success. Her employer stands by her (What? You wanted her fired and maybe back on the street?).
We'll think of something.
What are the shiny, new Baptist State Convention of North Carolina staff blogging policies, we wonder?
The BSCNC account of yesterday's action says uninformatively:Davis also brought to the EC a policy about blogging and the use of social networking media. This policy will guide BSCNC staff as they seek to establish blogs and maintain blogs, and utilize social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) related to their work in BSCNC ministries. The EC approved this policy and it will be included in the BSCNC staff personnel manual.
Norman Jameson's account in the N.C. Biblical Recorder was more timely and reports even less. Does that affirm BSCNC Executive Director Milton Hollifield's view of BR's purpose and value?
Just askin'.
Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print, because it is more convenient and accessible .. [Discovered that, didja? Like the entire newspaper industry worldwide hadn't noticed.] ... So when we heard the feedback and noticed subscriptions to the print magazine lagging behind Internet usage, in spite of strong retail newsstand sales, we jumped at the chance to go all digital. Thankfully, Reader's Digest was willing to help us make the transition. [Maybe recover some of the money lost in that bath they took on your print mag?]What would you think of the Christian Science Monitor's journalism if they had spun similar tales in October 2008, rather than explaining how print-publication losses left them little choice and staging their transition to full digital
In June, while reviewing the 94 magazines owned by RDA, president and CEO Mary Berner held the Purpose Driven Connection venture up as the company's model for future success. The New York Times Stephanie Clifford reported:
For about $30, subscribers get a quarterly magazine with religious workbooks, along with DVDs featuring Mr. Warren, and membership in a social-networking Web site, including tips on what to pray for each week. It is available through churches and at Wal-Marts, and Ms. Berner wants to introduce other unorthodox distribution strategies.By mid-August, all the other board members had resigned and Berner was leading the company through bankruptcy and contemplating a cut in pay to $1.5 million a year.
“That is the model going forward,” she said.
...
“It’s an unabashed commitment to and focus on a market that’s ignored but is incredibly powerful,” she said.
...
If the new direction works, Ms. Berner said, she may consider introducing magazines around Rick Warren-like religious personalities, along with increasing the amount of spiritual content in Reader’s Digest itself.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care what the religion is, what the spirituality is, as long as it’s legitimate, there’s a built-in community and it’s global,” Ms. Berner said.
We note in passing that SBC Today gave up its February decision to forego user comments on its blog entries.
We argued at the time that their decision was both self-destructive and disrespectful of their readers.
User response, which in cases like that is in general to leave and stay away until you come to your senses, had its way.
There are available if evolving ethical and legal standards to help law enforcement officials decide whether to identify anonymous bloggers. Yet accounts suggest that none were applied when Jacksonville, Fla., Sheriff’s Detective Robert Hinson unmasked FBC Jax Watchdog to First Baptist Church of Jacksonville (FBC Jax) leadership.
Jacksonville Times-Union reporter Jeff Brumley wrote:
It was also proper for [Detective Robert] Hinson to provide First Baptist’s leadership with [Thomas A.] Rich’s identity despite finding no criminal evidence, [Undersheriff Frank] Mackesy said, so it could take whatever internal action it felt necessary for its own safety.
Mackesy's allusion to "safety" may be read as an attempt to excuse his department for an error, since nothing Detective Hinson reports finding provides reason to believe the safety of either the church or any of its members was at risk from Rich. A close reading of the FBC Jax Watchdog blog reveals no threats of violence. Nor is there anything other than restrained self-expression in the Watchdog's words we have seen quoted elsewhere.
Hinson could not have escaped knowing, however, that his minister yearned to identify the author of the anonymously penned FBC Jax Watchdog blog which regularly called him to task. Hinson, who is a member of FBC Jax Pastor Mac Brunson's security detail, surely knew Brunson would be grateful for that information.
The ties between charismatic pastor and protective parishioner, and the attendant natural desire to please the pastor, created an appearance of conflict of interest which overshadows this matter.
Concerns about that apparent conflict should in our view have led Hinson to recuse himself from any investigation involving his church and pastor.
Legal ethics, most evident in judicial standards, generally require such recusal. For even if an officer behaves with unwavering professional objectivity, the appearance of conflict still tends to undermine public confidence in the department and thus in the law.
Even so, had Detective Hinson not given up Thomas A. Rich as the anonymous author of the FBC Jax Watchdog blog, that appearance of an ethical conflict of interest would not have congealed into an argument for its reality. That appearance is unreduced by the sheriff's failure address his subordinate's role, even if unintentional, in the pillorying of Rich by FBC Jax which followed Hinson's disclosure.
In addition, emerging legal standards regarding blogger anonymity suggest that Rich should have been given notice of Hinson's intended erasure of his anonymity -- notice attended by ample time to respond. Rich's legal counsel could then have argued in court for the protection of his privacy and First Amendment rights.
Recent cases also suggest that those seeking an anonymous blogger's identity must demonstrate to a court that their claim will withstand both a motion to dismiss and a motion of summary judgment. That is, they must plead facts necessary to succeed in their claim, and show the sufficiency of those facts.
Thus far there appear to have been no facts sufficient to have persuaded a court of competent jurisdiction to strip Rich of his anonymity. Nor to have seriously considered doing so. There are instead contradictory accounts of the causes for the investigation -- with the Rev. John Blount, who filed the complaint, differing from Hinson -- and an apparent dearth of facts.
We are left with abiding concern about Hinson's possible conflict of interest, the lack of appropriate legal regard for Rich's rights and the chilling effect on free expression which can result from such a public trampling of an individual's rights.
Rising costs and declining revenue have driven the 1.2-million-member United Church of Christ to end its newsprint publication in September, replacing it with a portfolio which includes an expanded Web news portal, email publications and a MyUCC social networking community.
The United Church News tied last year for third place in the Associated Church Press competition for best national or international religion newspaper in North America. Distributed for free to UCC members since 2001, it had a reported 2008 circulation of 206,000 and was said to be the nation's largest denominational newspaper.
In a move toward "citizen journalism," registered MyUCC users can create their own blogs and group discussions, upload images and video and otherwise "contribute their own body of unfiltered content, opinions, reflections and creative work," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's director of communications.
The UCC added a weekly an email publication in October to its Web headline service, denominational news page, news blog and podcasts.
Plans are being developed to meet an expressed congregational need for a printed "identity publication" in the Spring of 2010. Guess described it as a twice-yearly, paid-subscription, "oversized, full-color, coffee-table publication of 80-to-100 pages."
Created in 1985 to succeed A.D. Magazine and the United Church Herald, the United Church News published 10 editions per year until 2005. Then, as a result of financial pressure, the number was cut to six.
Another edition is to be printed in June and the final newsprint edition is to be published in September, when it joins the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Witness and other print-on-paper publications whose archive is complete.
FBC Jax Watchdog's anonymity was silently demolished by an unsatisfactorily explained and, from the point of view of the blogger, secret criminal investigation.
Anonymous blogs permit the relatively powerless to speak what they believe is truth, to power. Sometimes the power is a church, as we see in the confrontation between First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla. and FBC Jax Watchdog, and risk still attends attempting to say to power things it would prefer not to hear.
The unmasking of Thomas A. Rich as Watchdog, detailed in Florida Times-Union, closely resembles the July attempt by the Bronx (N.Y.) District Attorney to use a grand jury subpoena to unmask and silence critical anonymous bloggers and commenters on the NYC political blog site called Room 8. With the help of Public Citizen, Room 8 successfully resisted disclosure.
We do not know how Google responded to the subpoena it received. Not only does Google have an official policy of not commenting on subpoenas or other legal processes, but also, subpoenas associated with criminal investigations are typically attended by gag orders (Room 8 responded by threatening the Bronx DA's office with a countersuit). Nor has Watchdog thus far been able to obtain a copy of the subpoena he believes Comcast honored.
We do know that no wrongdoing was found, yet the investigating Jacksonville Sheriff's Department officer apparently chose to breach the blogger's anonymity by disclosing his identity to FBC Jax. We also know that Thomas A. Rich's life was disrupted as a result. He was denied access to his (now) former church, publicly excoriated in an official church action and this week was described as a "sociopath" by the pastor who has been the principal subject of his blogging.
We don't know in persuasive detail what criminal allegations were believed to justify that intrusion of police power into Rich's life and the lives of two other bloggers. As a result, whether those allegations can withstand the light of day is an open question. Serious issues of conflict of interest (the investigating officer is an FBC Jacksonville member and apparently among those who provide security there) and as a result abuse of power, have been raised by the association of the detective's investigation with attempts to silence the then anonymous blogger.
Such issues are typically best resolved by full disclosure, for this has become in considerable part a debate over public policy, and specifically over whether the force of law was properly applied. Given the issue's visibility, the local and state public officials involved must tell the truth and trust the people, or absent a thoroughly compelling explanation for silence, find themselves indicted by the appearance of concealment.
If the purpose of the investigation and disclosure was to end Watchdog's commentary on matters of general interest to his audience, it failed and those who applied the pressure have put themselves in the fire.
Ethical/legal standards not followed by law enforcement in FBC Jax case
Posts
All Comments
|
| Enter your email address |
| Visit this group |
