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Attempt to Silence Blogger a Pattern in Orange County?
By Andrew Davey
Student, University of San Diego
What is this nation coming to? What is this county coming to? Whatever happened to our First Amendment right to free speech? From today's Orange County Register:
... [O]ne county worker is finding out that political blogging – or blogging for Democrats in Orange County – can also generate blowback. County officials are investigating blogger Chris Prevatt, who works in the county's health care agency and posts commentaries at the site Liberal OC, for visiting the site during work hours.
And what is their excuse for this "investigation"?
Two weeks before this month's election, Prevatt posted an article giving County Supervisor Chris Norby the nickname of “Darth Norby.” He criticized Norby for his stance against government-funded ethnic outreach programs and even posted a photo of Norby morphed into the infamous dark lord of Star Wars fame.
Two days later, Prevatt says, health care agency supervisors came to his desk, confiscated his computer and began an investigation.
A Norby aide admits he mentioned the post to a senior county official but did not call for an investigation.
What is going on with my county government? First, they sit by idly as our "Godfather" Sheriff Carona silences Bill Hunt after he had the courage to not only blow the whistle on "The Little Sheriff", but continue running for Sheriff after Carona decided to keep his old job after all. And now, they are going after another county employee... And this time, he's not even a political appointee...He's simply a county health care agency employee who was trying to keep our government honest.
Oh, and if they cared so much about county employees avoiding political blogging on county time, why don't they investigate former county employee Jon Fleischman's "work" on the Flash Report?
County CEO Tom Mauk denies that the probe into Prevatt is politically motivated, adding that such investigations are triggered by complaints. There have not been any probes into Republican bloggers that Mauk can recall.
Yeah, right! There's no way that Jon Fleischman was able to "post while taking breaks"... If you look at all the long posts he was writing during his period in the Sheriff's Office, there's no way he could have done all those posts during his break time, which by the way, is still county time! Sorry, but I call bulls*** here!
So why is the County really going after Chris Prevatt? Perhaps because he posted this scathing critique of Neal Kelley's (in)ability to conduct a proper election? Perhaps because he blew the whistle on all the federal HIV/AIDS funds that were being misused by the County Health Care Agency? Or is it just becuase he's a Democratic blogger, as opposed to the dominant Republican culture (of corruption!!) in the county government? Well, whatever it is, I refuse to stand by and allow my county government to do such a disgusting act of political payback!
Andrew Davey is currently studying political science at the University of San Diego. However when he's not studying politics in the classroom, he is practicing it outside the classroom. He leads the Santa Ana Precinct Captain program for the Orange County Democrats, and serves on the board of directors for the San Diego Stonewall Young Democrats and the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club (Orange County). Andrew resides in Santa Ana, California. For more on the bizarre goings-on in Orange County, check out his blog.
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