Shamefully, the Trustees of the Boston Public Library defied the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights and approved the Mayor's fiat.

 The "liberal" Boston Globe applauded the Mayor's move, in a Pecksniffian editorial that began, "Pornography pollutes the Internet like smog on a sunny day" and stressed the need for "filtering smut." The Globe repeated the tired argument that the only way we can avoid government censorship is by censoring ourselves -- thus making government censorship unnecessary. (Why are liberals constitutionally incapable of understanding that self-censorship is the worst censorship of all?)

 More alarming, the President of the Library's Board of Trustees is none other than Globe publisher William O. Taylor -- a fact that the Globe "neglected" to tell its readers. We suspect Taylor played a critical role in this nonsense, along with board member William Bulger, President of the Massachusetts university system and former president of the Massachusetts Senate. Both are anti-sex prudes and prominent members of the informal successor of Boston's Watch and Ward Society. Both are in tight with the Mayor; both are part of the cadre of power brokers who run the city.

 What the Mayor did was unconstitutional and will not survive a legal challenge -- a point that did not interest the editors of The Boston Globe. When the legal challenges have run their course, the censorware will be gone from the libraries, and the City of Boston will have nothing to show for its efforts except enormous legal bills -- bills that will be paid by Boston taxpayers, not by Tom Menino.

 The Globe's astoundingly inaccurate and misleading coverage ended with the cheerleading editorial of February 14. We suspect that much of the disinformation that led the Globe's editors to endorse Cyber Patrol was supplied by the paper's egregious cyberspace reporter Hiawatha Bray. (Bray was a member of Joseph Scheidler's extremist Pro-Life Action League before coming to Boston.) A piece by columnist Simson Garfinkle, relegated to page 4 of the Business section, was helpfully sane, but marred by a tendency to take CyberPatrol at its word on several key points. As of today (March 3), the Globe has yet to run any of the letters civil libertarians quickly wrote condemning the Mayor's censorship order and taking issue with the Globe's editorial endorsement of it. The Herald, meanwhile, despite its rabidly pro-censorship stance, has published a number of informative articles, as well as several letters pro and con. We can't include many of the newspaper articles because of copyright considerations, but we hope the following information will prove useful:
 
 

• In Defense of Censorship

 

 

• The City of Boston's Press Release

 

 

• Not to be Missed! An Interview with Mayor Menino.

 

 

• Dan Kennedy's article in The Boston Phoenix.

 

 

• Some Letters of Protest

 

 

• A Letter to Mayor Menino from the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression

 

 

• A Letter to Mayor Menino from the National Writers Union

 

 

• A Letter to Mayor Menino from the Massachusetts Music Industry Coalition

 

 

• A Letter to Mayor Menino From the New England Free Expression network

 

 

• A Letter to Mayor Menino from the Editor of The Guide

 

 

• A Letter to the Boston Globe from the National Writers Union

 

 

• A Letter to the Boston Globe and Mayor Menino from Nan Levinson

 

 

• A Few Articles

 

 

• Internet Censor 1.0 by Simson Garfinkel in The Boston Globe.

 

 

• Banned in Boston by Declan McCullagh.

 

 

• Purchase of Blocking Software by Public Libraries is Unconstitutional by Jonathan Wallace, Esq.

 

 

• Finally!. An article opposing library censorship in The Boston Globe. Secret Censors, by distinguished author and civil libertarian, Wendy Kaminer.

 

 

• Libraries: The Next Battlefield, by Alan Boyle for MSNBC.

 

 

• In Kids' Own Words by Jon Katz.

 

 

• What Does the American Library Association have to say?

 

 

• The American Library Association's Statement on Free Access to Libraries for Minors

 

 

• The ALA Statement on Access to Electronic Information

 

 

• The ALA's Draft FAQ on Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks
• What Does Censorware Censor?

 

 

• "The Keys to The Kingdom," by Declan McCullagh and Brock Meeks. This is the article that exposed the nefarious inner workings of censorware.

 

 

• What Does CyberPatrol Block? Besides this page, of course.

 

 

• Beware of CyberSitter!

 

 

• A Peek Inside the Top Secret CyberNOT list.

 

 

• Is Censorware Blocking Your Site? Find Out by Clicking Here.

 

 

• Austin's Sad Experience With Cyber Patrol. On February 7, the Austin Texas Public Library made the mistake of installing Cyber Patrol. The library is currently working to scale it back and then to remove it.

 

 

• Banned in Austin by David Smith.

 

 

• Resignation letter of an Austin Public Library Volunteer.

 

 

• The Boston City Council Hearing. On March 19, the Neighborhood Services Committee of the Boston City Council held a hearing on internet access at the Boston Public Library. On behalf of the National Writers Union, I submitted both oral and written testimony. Here is a report on the hearing I emailed that evening.

 

 

• Additional Vital Information

 

 

• A wealth of information demonstrating that ratings and labeling systems inevitably lead to censorship, compiled by Seth Finkelstein for SAFE at MIT.

 

 

• Check Out Peacefire

 

 

• A civilized approach. The Kid's Place at the Sacramento Public Library

The Honorable Thomas Menino
Boston City Hall
One City Hall Square
Boston MA 02201

 Fax: 617/635-2858

 email: 76712.2636@compuserve.com

 Or use The Mayor's mail page.

 Contact Mike Hernon, Chief Information Officer
email: MIKE@ci.boston.ma.us

 Or use Hernon's mail page.
 
 

Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
POB 2378
Boston MA 02107-2378

 Fax: 617/929-3186

 email: letter@globe.com

 The Globe said today (February 18) that it may be up to two weeks before they publish any letters on this issue . The Globe, having spoken, apparently wants to downplay the story and minimize the chances of opposing views receiving a fair hearing. Don't let the Globe get away with this! Write them! Be sure to include your name and full address in your letter.
 

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Please send me copies of your letters, or contact me with suggestions for additional materials to link to this page at kyp@ultranet.com.

 Return to Bob Chatelle's Home Page or The Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression Home Page.

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