Stick a Muzzle on It

The Thomas Jefferson Center has released its 2008 Muzzle awards. The Muzzle awards are a dubious distinction at best as they recognize those in Government, Media, and Private Sectors who try to put the kibosh on free speech. These are the kind of things that would make Jefferson himself roll over in his grave and have his eyes bug out from his skull.

There are the obvious ones from the past year, like MSNBC and CBS radio firing Don Imus over the “Nappy Haired Hoes” but there were also some lesser publicized cases of free speech stifling that are of interest including some where we think those doing the censoring might be in the right.

Such is the case in the #11 slot this year:

Lewis Mills High School (CT) Principal Karissa Niehoff and School District Superintendent Paula Schwartz

For refusing to allow a student to run for class office because she posted on an Internet website crude comments criticizing school officials for their recent handling of a social event at the school, a 2008 Jefferson Muzzle goes to…Lewis Mills High School (CT) Principal Karissa Niehoff and School District Superintendent Paula Schwartz.

How ever stupid it is (and we see evidence of this everyday) to post stuff on the web and expect it to not be seen by anybody and everybody (including the crap on this site right here) people still do it and then they’re surprised at the outcome. That doesn’t give the school administration the right to censure…and besides the bigger thing here is that this girl was running for student council. Does she really need a popularity contest to validate herself? And what’s worst here is that she was running for Secretary. She’s not even popular enough to be Vice President or Sergeant-at-Arms. What a bag of well…read her blog entry in the article…

The Muzzles are a great way to really keep our constant urge to censor things we don’t like to hear in check. We are a nation built on free speech and expression (something forgotten by our current Federal administration) and should strive not to curse but to curse for a reason.

So with that I say F$%@$% Off and Good Night