House Committee considering stripping legal ads from newspapers

LANSING -- Weekly and daily newspapers struggling to survive could be dealt a deathblow if they lose legal ads that are a steady source of ad revenue, and that could happen under a package of bills the House Judiciary Committee is considering.

The Committee took testimony on Wednesday on a package of bills that would allow local governments to post the ads on their web sites or on their public access cable TV channels. The law requires the municipality to post notices of meetings and ordinances in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality in order to keep the public informed and for a permanent record. Some new ordinances can be very long, and depending on the newspaper’s ad rate, it can be expensive.

The Judiciary Committee took testimony on two packages so bills, but they did not act on them. Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-Chelsea, was the primary sponsor of a three-bill package – House Bills 5845, 4847 and 5847, that would create a definition of a newspaper and only allow a very limited use of alternative publishing for governmental notices where appropriate newspapers were not available.

Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, is the main sponsor of another package that includes HB 5916-5917 and HB 5848 and 5853. That package gives local clerks more leeway to use the Internet, cable TV and other means for official posting.

“The heart and soul of legal notices is government transparency, and we take that very seriously,” said Rep. Rebekak Warren, D-Ann Arbor. “That’s where the future of communications going and the devil is in the details.”

A long line of local government officials testified in favor of the bills, saying how much it costs them to place the ads. However, a few local newspaper editors and members of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) did testify against the bills. Their position is that newspapers are more independent than a government web site, and publication in newspapers creates a permanent record that can be verified.

Although no vote was taken, the committee seemed to be leaning toward allowing legal notices to be published by the local government, but not everyone was 100 percent convinced.

“I was must be very old fashioned because I don’t have cable, and I consider myself an informed citizen because I read the newspaper,” said Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker, R- Mattawan. “A concern of mine is; when do we stop. Would we allow this for court notices and foreclosure notices?"

The committee haring lasted almost three hours, and there were still people waiting to testify. Committee Chair Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, said more testimony would be taken at the next hearing date next week.

House Republicans do the bidding of homophobic hate groups

You have to wonder exactly why and what Republicans are so afraid of about lesbians and homosexuals.

The discrimination they harbor against the gay community is baffling, and it drives a large part of their agenda. They embrace hatemongers like Ann Coulter and Gary Glenn who are clearly homophobic and discriminatory. The latest example of their discrimination is their opposition to the common sense, anti-bullying bill, House Bill 4162, introduced by Rep. Pam Byrnes, (D-Lyndon Township) and passed by the House almost along party lines 59-50 on March 28. It’s hard to believe 50 alleged elected leaders are kowtowing to the extreme rightwing hate groups and opposing the bill – known as Matt’s Safe School Law - because they say it promotes the homosexual agenda. I know it’s absurd but that’s the claim.

According to an Associated Press story in the Lansing State Journal, “Michigan law shouldn't formally recognize homosexual behavior, conservatives say, nor should gays get special protection. Republicans favor a broad ban against all bullying in schools.”

What caught my eye about this story - other than the ridiculous notion that homosexuals, who often face violent harassment and bullying, should not be protected - is that some of the 200 people who showed up on the day the bill was approved to lobby in support of the bill were from my high school, Monroe High School. I’m proud to be a Trojan.

De'Lea Cheatham braces for abuse every day.
The 17-year-old senior at Monroe High School says she frequently has been yelled at and shoved by other students because she's a lesbian. It began in middle school and has only gotten worse in high school, says Cheatham.
One student who supports the legislation is Ben Mathews, an 18-year-old senior at Monroe High and member of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. Mathews says many students are bullied even if they’re straight but perceived to be gay or lesbian.

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry put it best in his blog, and he cut right to the chase. I guess 30 years of journalism experience will do that for you. Lessenberry has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News, reporting from more than forty countries. His writing has appeared in such national publications as Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He is also a professor of journalism at Wayne State University, and his freelance columns appear in The Metro Times, The Traverse-City Record Eagle and The Toledo (Ohio) Blade. He also has local ties to Livingston County, serving as the executive of Hometown Communications that includes all the Observer and Eccentric newspapers, as well as the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus before the chain was purchased by Gannett.

Lessenberry said it was a well-written law, and “anyone who grumbles about it imposing state control hasn’t read it. In a civilized society, this bill would be adopted unanimously. But in fact there are those who want to kill or weaken it. “

But there are bigots who are so blinded by their hatred and fear of anyone gay, or who might be gay, that they would rather put children’s lives at risk. There are also those who support the haters for cynical political reasons. Two Republican state representatives are fighting to make sure the bill does not protect people based on sexual orientation.

He calls Gary Glenn and his organization – the so-called “American Family Association” - a hate group. It was Glenn who gave Vicky Fyke, the leader of the anti-gay hate group known as “LOVE” PAC (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) and the former advisor of the Livingston County Teen Age Republicans, the ridiculous idea to have the FBI investigate books in the high school curriculum as pornographic.

They are doing the work of a hate group misnamed the American Family Association. It is spreading the lie that this bill’s real purpose is to “legitimize homosexual behavior and cross-dressing,” and that this will lead to increased cocaine use in children under thirteen.” You can read this garbage on their web site.

The real obscenity and crime is that the much needed-bill will die in the Republican-controlled, homophobic Senate.