This is sort of interesting -- a judge in Boston has slapped a gag on a television station to keep it from reporting on drunk and drugged firefighters.

It’s “very unusual” for a judge to issue an order preventing news organizations from running or publishing stories, a Boston civil rights attorney said yesterday.

“They should have been allowed to run the story,” attorney Howard Friedman said of WHDH-TV (Ch. 7), which was banned by a judge from airing a story yesterday on the autopsy results of two Boston firefighters killed in August.

“In our system with the First Amendment, in almost all instances, you can run with the story but suffer the consequences,” Friedman added. “Obviously, they publish at their peril. If it’s inaccurate, if there’s some damage caused . . . there could be lawsuits.”

Why? Because the autopsy records they gained access to are not public records, even though they reveal misconduct y public employees on the job which certainly endanged public safety and may have contributed to their own deaths.

In court, Paul Hynes, the attorney representing the Boston firefightersÂ’ Local 718, argued that it was a privacy issue and pointed to a 1989 decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court that said medical examinersÂ’ autopsy reports are not public because they are medical records.

That decision reversed a lower court ruling that said autopsies were public record after the Boston Globe sued the stateÂ’s chief medical examinerÂ’s office for the autopsies of three patients who died at Bridgewater State Hospital.

Hopkins, who was sworn in as a judge in August 2006, is Boston Mayor Thomas M. MeninoÂ’s former chief of staff and was his legal counsel for more than a decade.

Last night, the Herald published an online report detailing the autopsy results, which found that one of two hero firefighters who died fighting a West Roxbury blaze was legally drunk at the fire while the other had traces of illegal drugs in his bloodstream.

During its 11 p.m. newscast last night, WHDH reported that it had the information, but was blocked by the judge from reporting it.

Looks like a political hack of a judge is covering up for her former employers union thug supporters.

This is sort of interesting. If it stands, it means that the press can publish our nation's most sensitive secrets on the front page during time of war without legal jeopardy, but is subject to prior restraint when reporting on a matter of public concern and safety on the theory that dead men have privacy rights.

What a screwed up notion.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, The Populist, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 03:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 493 words, total size 4 kb.