Yes, you read it correctly, the Sentinel has itself engaged in the very behavior it is complaining about in its own editorial today.
Funny thing about newspapers: When they are denied access to information, or threatened with a lawsuit should they print something someone doesn't want to see in print, they squeal like school girls. But when a newspaper becomes the story, the indignity vanishes.
We speak, of course, of that stalwart defender of the First Amendment, the Orlando Sentinel. On May 29, Slug reported that the Tribune Co., which owns the Sentinel and nine other daily newspapers, was recruiting scabs from its Florida papers (including the Sentinel) to replace unionized workers at the Baltimore Sun, who are threatening to go on strike if they don't reach a contract agreement by June 24. We got a lot of response to the column, and understandably so. The Sentinel doesn't think its union-breaking efforts are newsworthy.
Our sources say that scabs are being recruited with the promise of Sun pay on top of their regular pay. Who would sell their journalistic brethren down the river for a few (OK, quite a few) extra bucks, we wondered. The easiest way to find out would be to compare the masthead in the June 25 issue of the Sun with the masthead of the Sentinel, just to see if there were any names we recognize. Information doesn't get any more public than that, now does it?
But the Sentinel doesn't see it that way. On June 17, the Weekly got a letter from the Sentinel's lawyer, William B. Wilson, of the powerhouse law firm Holland & Knight, saying that if we publish the names, they'll sue. Here is what Wilson had to say:
"The Sentinel is a zealous First Amendment advocate and does not question your publication's right to criticize the newspaper. However, we are concerned about the effect such a publication of names would have on the families of the replacement workers. A publication of names does not contribute to the debate about the negotiations between organized labor and the Baltimore Sun. Its only purpose is to expose families to harassment from people in Central Florida who know nothing about the events taking place in Baltimore or the policies of the Baltimore Sun or the Tribune in relation to the labor relations."
Here's where it gets good: "Therefore, the Sentinel wants to place Orlando Weekly on notice that a publication of the names of these workers creates a palpable threat of harm to those employees and their families. On behalf of these families, we ask that the Orlando Weekly refrain from doing so."
Wilson goes on to say, "While the Sentinel does not consider being a replacement worker a defamatory fact, such a wrongful naming would hold that person in a False Light [sic] making the publication responsible for the injuries that would arise from the publication."
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