Up in Rhodes Island, Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey has been directed to give up his talk-radio show by state elections officials. Seems that they have decided that allowing the mayor to do the show constitutes an “in-kind” corporate contribution by WPRO, the station on which Laffey has appeared. Laffey is not paid for the show, which runs on Sunday morning, and it was seen as public affairs programming by the station.

Oh, did you wonder where the initial complaint originated?

The complaint to the elections board was made by Cranston City Council President Aram Garabedian, a Democrat defeated by Laffey in 2002. Outside the courthouse on May 11, Laffey said he was being singled out for taking a stand against corruption spawned by the state's Democratic political machine.

"When you speak out against special interests in Rhode Island, they'll try to shut you down," he said.

So it seems clear that this is political sour grapes by local (and state) Democrats against a candidate who helped disrupt their political control of a large suburb of Providence (isnÂ’t the entire state a suburb of Providence?) that had been a traditional Democrat stronghold.

But I am also struck by a comment in the article from Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz, who doesnÂ’t recognize the absurdity of his statement.

"He looks like he's fighting the good fight over the First Amendment," he said, "and in fact he's fighting a bare-knuckle fight to keep his political platform."

Uh, I thought the purpose of the first Amendment WAS to prevent the government from preventing someone from engaging in political speech. Seems to me that the two things the professor is talking about are, in fact, one and the same.

Posted by: Greg at 11:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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