Media outlets battle it out over free-speech rights

MEDIA OUTLETS BATTLE IT OUT OVER FREE-SPEECH RIGHTS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Martin Kasindorf]
In a dispute between the "new media" of the Internet and the "old media" of broadcasting, liberal bloggers and conservative talk-radio hosts are accusing each other of trampling the First Amendment's guarantees of free speech. Hundreds of blogs are exhorting national advertisers not to buy commercial time on Disney-owned KSFO-AM in San Francisco because some on-air hosts have made comments that the bloggers allege are racist or encourage violence. KSFO personalities say the bloggers are trying to muzzle their political views. The bloggers say they're rallying behind the free-speech rights of a colleague whose website was briefly shut down after Disney's ABC network threatened to sue over alleged copyright violations. Some advertisers, including Bank of America and MasterCard, have deserted KSFO since an anonymous media critic identifying himself online as Spocko began posting recordings of the station's "Hot Talk" hosts. Spocko and some of his readers have been e-mailing the audio to KSFO advertisers since 2005, asking the companies whether they want to be associated with the controversial rhetoric. The First Amendment flap was debated Sunday on CNN's Reliable Sources. Dan Riehl, a blogger critical of Spocko, said some of the radio hosts' comments "were blown out of proportion or misrepresented" in the complaints to sponsors. Mike Stark, another blogger and a Spocko ally, said: "The way to fight free speech that you disagree with is to engage in more free speech. And that's exactly what Spocko did."
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070124/a_blogger24.art.htm