PIML 96061104 / Forwarded to Patriot Information Mailing List: [Welcome to police state Amerika. Again.] PIML ================================================================== From: gareth@gnf.com (Gareth Nerisa Fenley) Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Subject: Censorship Olympic Style Followup-To: alt.activism.d Date: 8 Jun 1996 20:04:04 GMT CENSORSHIP, OLYMPIC STYLE ***Speak out to stop censorship! 2pm, Monday, June 10, Committee Room Two, Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Avenue. Or send a FAX to Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell at (404) 658-7361. Details follow*** Thousands of newspapers are to be seized by police and removed from downtown Atlanta, under a new ordinance. Targets range from USA Today to home-finding services and alternative weekly newspapers. The Atlanta City Council quietly enacted the law, which became effective June 1. It outlaws all newspaper distribution boxes along main streets inside the "Olympic ring" -- Atlanta's downtown core -- unless they match the color, size, shape, weight, construction materials, and even the size of the graphic logo on boxes owned by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Replacing boxes would cost about $350 apiece, according to Southern Voice, a gay and lesbian newspaper that has about 20 boxes in the designated area. That cost would effectively expel small publishers from the Olympic ring. The ordinance mandates boxes built to expensive standards, with a uniform appearance. "No paper wants its box to look like all the others, or have all the boxes look like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution," said Fulton Daily Report editor and publisher S. Richard Gard, Jr. The Journal-Constitution is Atlanta's only newspaper publishing 7 days a week. It is owned by Cox Communications, which also owns Atlanta's ABC affiliate WSB-TV (Channel 2) as well as NewsRadio WSB-AM. Sponsored by District 6 council member Mary Davis, the ordinance moved stealthily through the city council's Utility Committee to the full council, which passed it. Opponents spoke out after the fact at a Utility Committee meeting May 29, but Davis was absent, and members decided to let her ordinance take effect. A recorded message at Davis' office Friday said she has been out of town all week attending her daughter's Olympic tryouts. The Davis ordinance was crafted and researched by the Atlanta Downtown Partnership, a private business-oriented group. Executive director Ronni French said the regulations would improve downtown aesthetics and safety. She obtained a letter of support from a similar organization, Central Atlanta Progress. Central Atlanta Progress vice president Paul Kellerman said Friday that several people at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed and approved the Davis ordinance before it was enacted. Kellerman refused to name the Journal-Constitution staffers, saying he does not want to get them in trouble. He said the Journal-Constitution came under pressure from other publishers to change its position after the enactment. The Journal-Constitution now has joined with USA Today in backing a proposed ordinance by council member Doug Alexander. His measure would remove some -- but not all -- of the newspaper-box restrictions. Alexander's proposal was up for consideration at the May 29 Utilities Committee meeting, but he too was absent. The committee meets again Monday, June 10 to decide what to do. Members of the public are invited to speak at the meeting, which begins at 2 p.m. The newspaper ordinance is expected to come up on the agenda between 2:30 and 3 p.m. Citizens who want the option to speak should sign up with the committee staff as they arrive in Committee Room Two, Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Avenue. Contacts: (all area codes are 404) --Mary Davis, District 6 Atlanta City Council Member. Sponsored censorship ordinance. Assistant's name is Rachel. 330-6049. --Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. In charge of enforcing censorship ordinance. Can put pressure on City Council. 330-6100. Fax 658-7361. --Lee Morris. Council member and chair of the Utilities Committee, which passed the censorship ordinance and is now re-considering. 330-6050. --Doug Alexander. Council member who proposes to repeal *some* aspects of censorship ordinance. Utilities Committee. 330-6041. --Vern McCarty. District 1 council member who said he would lobby Mayor Campbell not to enforce the censorship ordinance. Assistant is Carla Smith. Utilities Committee. 330-6039. --Debi Starnes. District 2 council member who suggests a "compromise." Utilities Committee. 330-6038. --Atlanta city council clerk. Call this number if you live in the city of Atlanta and want to know what Council districts you are in. (You have two.) Also can give you phone numbers and names. 330-6032. --Ms. Ronni French, executive director, Atlanta Downtown Partnership. Driving force behind censorship ordinance. Compiled all the supporting research. 577-0330. --Paul Kellman, vice president, Central Atlanta Progress. Supports censorship ordinance. 658-1877. --CODA (Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta). Supports censorship ordinance. Contact "Randy." 651-1798. --Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Takes heat and has clout. 224-1996. This flyer was written Friday, June 7, 1996 by Gareth Fenley (gareth@gnf.com), an Atlanta voter, and distributed by hand, by fax, and on the Internet. ================================================================== * Patriot Information Mailing List * http://constitution.org/piml/piml.htm * A service to help inform those who have an active interest in * returning our federal and state governments to limited, * constitutional government * Send messages for consideration and possible posting to * butterb@sagenet.net (Bill Utterback). * To subscribe or unsubscribe, send message with subject line * "subscribe patriot" or "unsubscribe patriot" * Forwarded messages sent on this mailing list are NOT verified. * See World's Smallest Political Quiz: www.self-gov.org/quiz.html * Libertarian is to LIBERTY as librarian is to library (DePena) * PIML grants permission to copy and repost this message * in its entirety with headers and trailers left intact.