--- From: "Ben Silverman" <editorat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Re: Yahoo/China and Congressman Bill Thomas Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 03:48:07 -0400 Declan: Two items I wanted to point out to you. On the Yahoo/China story; Reports Without Borders issued a letter on the subject last month to little fanfare. I was surprised it received no coverage (though I republished it in my newsletter). A link to their letter: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=2959 On another issue. After reading a story on Jim Romenesko's Media News about a L.A. Times sportswriter named Brian Robin being fired because of an email he sent to Congressman Bill Thomas, I became incensed and wrote the following in my newsletter today: PART II - I, ON THE GOVERNMENT (http://www.dotcomscoop.com/081202.html#govt) § California Congressman Bill Thomas, the Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, gets The Punk of The Week Award. Thomas showed he is a true patriot when in an act of pure pettiness he cost a hard-working American his job. Reacting to a televised interview with Thomas, Los Angeles Times sportswriter Brian Robin shot off a nasty email to Thomas. Robin covers high school sports and golf for the paper's Ontario, CA edition. Robin, admittedly, made the grand mistake of sending the email from his LATimes.com account (he says his own email server was down). Robin made no mention of his profession in the email, signing it simply, "Brian Robin, Lancaster, CA." Thomas' office later called Robin to confirm he worked for the paper. Not long after, Robin was called before his superiors, suspended and then eventually fired for violating corporate policy of using company resources for personal use. The Tribune-owned Times had every right to fire Robin for violating company policy, that is if the company fires every other person who uses the company's email server or phones for personal use. But it's doubtful The Times adheres to this policy and thus the paper, in my opinion, kowtowed to a government official and spit in the face of freedom of speech. It is likely that Thomas, or his staffers, put pressure on The Times and the paper dumped Robin to avoid a bigger problem. "I would love to be able to confront Bill Thomas and ask him why he or his staff are so thin-skinned and ask them why they did this to my career and my family. And I'd also like to ask them if they'd have contacted the Times if the e-mail had been some complimentary thing. All I did was exercise my right of free speech, and it got completely blown out of hand," Robin told LA Weekly. Thomas' actions are pure evil and can't be justified. He ratted someone out to their employer because they expressed their opinion. I guess this is what that TIPS program will be all about. Imagine losing your job because of an email you sent to an elected PUBLIC SERVANT. Thomas doesn't seem to realize he works for me, you and Brian Robin and that by representing citizens, every single action and statement of his that affects the public is subject to scrutiny. I don't know much about Thomas, but this incident suggests to me that he's a little turd of a man. A spineless little fart who abused his power and needs to be nailed for it (I suggest contacting the House Committee on Standards and Ethical Conduct). Bill Thomas epitomizes everything that is wrong with our government. Hey Bill, I write for a newspaper, are you going to contact my editors because I wrote this? Let's see if you can get two people fired, jerkoff. Read the story: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/38/news-angel.php Read Robin's email to Thomas: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/38/news-angel2.php Contact the House Committee on Standards and Ethical Conduct: http://www.house.gov/ethics/CommitteeAddress.htm Email Congressman Bill Thomas: mailto:bill.thomasat_private or call his press office at 202-225-8933 --------------------------------------------------------- Ben Silverman Publisher, DotcomScoop.com Columnist, The New York Post AIM: BenMedddle http://www.dotcomscoop.com Dotcom Scoop news, every Monday, only in The New York Post ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q\clan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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