[syadasti]

For the 20th consecutive year, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression celebrated the April 13 birth date of its namesake by awarding “Jefferson Muzzles” to those responsible for some of the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression occurring in the previous year. Making up the list of “winners” receiving the 2011 Jefferson Muzzles are officials at every level of government—federal, state, local—and two private entities.

“Looking back over the past 20 years, it becomes apparent that, although the office holders may change, many in the same offices have made repeat appearances,” said Center director Robert O’Neil. “For example, with the Obama Administration receiving a Muzzle this year, every presidential administration of the last 20 years, Republican and Democrat, has been deemed deserving of a Muzzle. Similarly, the Smithsonian Institution, the Virginia Department of Corrections, and Albemarle High School are making repeat appearances on the 2011 list.”

Below is a list of all the 2011 Jefferson Muzzle “winners.” To learn what they did to earn this dubious distinction, please visit the official Jefferson Muzzle webpage.

1) The Obama Administration and BP
2) TSA
3) G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
4) The Virginia Department of Corrections
5) Mississippi State Court Judge Talmadge Littlejohn.
6) Gail Sweet, director of the Burlington County [New Jersey] Library System
7) Albemarle High School Administration [Virginia]
8) The Administration of Hamilton College

1) The Obama Administration and BP
It’s for your own safety. Those oily pelicans are really disguised terrorists.

For restricting media access to the Gulf oil spill, a 2011 Jefferson Muzzle Award goes to… The Obama Administration and BP.

Following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 10, 2010, the wellhead continued to spew oil for three months. As journalists attempted to document the impact of the oil plume, BP employees and various government authorities—including local law enforcement, the Coast Guard, and Homeland Security—repeatedly prevented them from viewing public areas. Whether these incidents were collectively intended, or the incidental by-products of an ambiguous policy that allowed BP and government agents too much latitude, the Obama Administration and BP share responsibility for having prevented the media from fully documenting the spill. Included among the incidents were the following:

While attempting to view an oil-soaked beach by boat, a CBS news crew was barred from accessing the area by BP contractors who were accompanied by two Coast Guard officers. They were told to turn around, under threat of arrest.
New Orleans Times-Picayune photojournalist Ted Jackson hired a seaplane to photograph the spill from the air. When the pilot requested permission to fly below the ceiling of 3000 feet (which was too high for meaningful photography of the spill), he was asked by the authorities to specify who would be on the plane. When told that a Times-Picayune photographer would be among the passengers, the swift response was: “No, then, you cannot have this exemption.”
In early June, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida had arranged for several journalists to accompany him on a trip through the Gulf, aboard a Coast Guard vessel. According to Senator Nelson, “We had it all set up for several network cameras to go with me, with the Coast Guard, to look at that patch of oil that was off Pensacola. And late the night before, suddenly the Department of Homeland Security calls and says, ‘You can’t take the media’.…”

The Obama Administration and BP appeared to be playing a game of Keep Away with journalists, and the American public was the ultimate loser. As he lashed out in frustration at blocked media access to the spill, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said, “If we can’t show what is happening, warts and all, no one will see what is happening and that makes it very easy to hide failure and hide incompetence…Those of us down here trying to accurately show what’s happening—we are not the enemy.”

In a 1980 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote, “People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions, but it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.” For restricting media access to the Gulf oil spill disaster—whether by design or by incompetence—The Obama Administration and BP are well-deserving of a 2011 Jefferson Muzzle Award.

 

[Westy]

So the Jefferson center picks one of it's top ten from an event that occured whole miles away from it's headquarters. The bone chilling censorship of a high school newspaper article of whether or not student athletes need to attend gym class. Those poor rich white kids. This is clearly a well thought out list.

 

[syadasti]

I didn't quote that winner, so what are you complaining about? Most people are too lazy to follow links. It was on public radio and seemed an interesting enough tradition.