News-Press Threatens Legal Action Against PODER
The Paper Takes Issue with Its Masthead on The Group's Facebook Page
The newest wrinkle in the dispute between PODER and the Santa Barbara News-Press over the paper’s non-compliance with AP standards for reporting on Latino affairs takes the form of a legal threat. News-Press city editor Scott Steepleton recently emailed PODER to inform us “to cease and desist all copyright and trademark infringement immediately.” This is due to the appearance of the newspaper’s masthead in the background of PODER’s call to boycott the paper posted on our Facebook page.
The dispute between PODER and the SBNP began in January when PODER and other civil rights advocates requested the paper to stop using the word “illegal” to describe Latino immigrants. The newspaper has responded that this language is perfectly acceptable and that any request to change it is an attack on its free speech. To illustrate that point, News-Press co-owner Arthur Von Wiesenberger encouraged local Minutemen and Tea Partiers to put on a counterdemonstration to PODER’s planned civil rights activities for MLK day. Though Wiesenberger has apparently denied inviting the Minutemen to De La Guerra Plaza, PODER has discovered evidence of his correspondence with renown anti-immigrant vigilante James Gilchrist at the Minutemen’s own website.
Given the newspaper’s waffling stance on the issue of free speech, it would seem that the owners of the SBNP view the line between acceptable and unacceptable speech as one tied to the race/class standing of the speakers. According to a Supreme Court decision reached in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, speech is better represented by money than votes. This means the more money you have, the more free speech you get. After a federal judge awarded News-Press co-owner Wendy McCaw the right to use the newspaper as a mouthpiece for her right-wing political ideologies based on her ownership of the paper, it is clear that those who don’t have a lot of cash to purchase their own newspapers and radio stations have fewer options to similarly express their opinions.
