Editor fired for running Leahy's opinion - how can we fight this?

[FormerRepublican]

From Raw Story:

"The longtime chief correspondent for The Associated Press in Vermont has been forced out of his job, stunning the state's journalists and politicians, after he ran a column by Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the wire, the New York Times reports Wednesday. Excerpts from the registration-restricted article:

#
Christopher Graff, 52, a writer who was in charge of The A.P.'s Vermont bureau in Montpelier, was told Monday he no longer had a job. The move came after he put a partisan column on the wire, and as the news agency is consolidating some of its bureaus across state lines.

Mr. Graff, a 27-year A.P. employee and host of "Vermont This Week" on Vermont Public Television for more than a decade, said he could not discuss the matter because he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. But speaking of news articles yesterday about his losing his job, he said, "It's a little like reading your obituary prematurely."

Jack Stokes, a spokesman for The A.P. in New York, confirmed that Mr. Graff was "no longer with the company" and said The A.P. did not discuss personnel issues."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Editor_forced_out_of_job_after_0322.html

I'm getting pretty tired of the Bush Administration abuse of power to control the press. Yet another violation of the Constitution - you know, that piece of paper that Bush doesn't care about.

What's the best way to fight this? Should we organize telephone and writing campaigns to AP? Should we file a lawsuit? Should we pressure the Bush Administration to cease and desist?

I see this as a VERY slippery slope that's eating away at our basic freedom of press and political dissent. We need to fight this stuff and fight back hard. What do you think the best defense against this stuff is?

[wakeme2008]

1. Sen. Patrick Leahy is the answer

Get him on board and IMHO AP will fold on this. He needs to call the NYC editor :(

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Let's not jump to conclusions

I'm getting pretty tired of the Bush Administration abuse of power to control the press.

Is a case of the Bush administration controlling the press or of corporate Bushbots owning it?

As Amy Goodman asked, if we had state-controlled censorship of the media, would we see any difference from what we see?

[FormerRepublican]

3. IMO, a lot of it looks way too coordinated to be individuals taking...

...action on their own. Why target this particular article? I mean, it's not like there aren't articles printed every day, by Leahy and a whole lot more. Why did this one trigger the nukular reaction?

The whole thing stinks to high heaven!

[Trillo]

4. The journalists doing the work should be the media owners. (n/t)

[cali]

5. smells like intimidation by example

to me.