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Tucson's Latino Blogger Shut Down by News Site
With the impeccable timing that continues to cement Tucson’s reputation as a hotbed of censorship and intellectual freedom violations, the online Tucson Citizen news site just announced that it has pulled the plug on the city’s most popular Latino blogger and activist, The Three Sonorans.
Tucson's most popular Latino blogger Morales, in a photo from his Facebook profile
Despite drawing over 1.6 million visits to his take-no-prisoners blog on politics, science and Sonoran hot dogs–including shutting down the Citizen’s server for breaking the tragic Gabby Giffords shooting in Tucson last year–The Three Sonorans blogger David “Abie” Morales is the latest casualty in Tucson’s seemingly relentless crackdown on the city’s deeply rooted Latino community.
In what appears to be more of a personal act of retribution than editorial concern, Citizen editor Mark Evans wrote in an email that The Three Sonorans‘ liability outweighed its benefit when the Tucson Weekly “posted an article last night that included verbatim email communications I had with David over his Patterson post.” Evans added for good measure: “In the end, it’s better for both of us. He won’t have anyone to answer to but himself and his readers and I won’t have to worry about getting angry phone calls from pissed off people at my mother’s funeral.”
In recent days, Morales had been particularly critical of state Rep. Daniel Patterson, a former Tucson Democrat currently embroiled in an ethics violation investigation, who has apparently threatened to sue Evans and the Citizen over Morales’ blogs. According to the Arizona Capitol Times today, “Some lawmakers have begun bringing firearms to the state Capitol, citing a growing fear of Rep. Daniel Patterson, whose alleged hostile outbursts and erratic behavior were detailed in an investigative report on Monday.”
Only two days after the Daily Show skewered inept Tucson school board member Michael Hicks for the dismantling of the city’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program–including the internationally condemned confiscation of classic books and removal of Mexican American literature from the district’s classrooms–and one day after the school district announced that the city’s just nationally honored Mexican American Studies director Sean Arce had been sacked, the Citizen’s move to shut down the muckraking Latino blogger has unleashed a storm of outrage.
“I think it was wrongheaded in the extreme,” said Tucson political insider and blogger Luke Knipe. “If there’s an upshot, it’s a yet another glaring sign of right-wing desperation to control constituencies they fear by controlling access to information. It won’t work, of course. If anything, it’ll make Abie’s voice more powerful than ever. But this certainly amounts to a spectacle of how scared they are.”
To be sure, The Three Sonorans has been an equal opportunity muckraker–the last blogs criticized US Rep. Raul Grijalva and Tucson’s Democrats–since its debut posting in 2010. His site served as a treasure trove of video archives, interviews and opinions, with a special focus on Arizona’s battles over the SB 1070 immigration law, the Ethnic Studies crisis, and political conflicts. As an indefatigable presence with his camera at Tucson’s school board meetings and local political gatherings, Morales broke several news stories over the past year, including the harrowing testimony of bloodshed by a Tea Party activist at a school board meeting last summer that ultimately led to the demotion of TUSD school board president Mark Stegemen.
Morales’ termination places him in good company in Tucson’s history of Latino journalism. Nearly a half century ago, pioneering Chicano author and columnist Mario Suarez drew the wrath of former Arizona governor Howard Pyle for his investigative and biting columns on corruption and discrimination in the Prensa Mexicana newspaper. Faced with reprisals and threats against his family, Suarez had to end his column, “El Gavilan,” but went on to lead community and education efforts in Arizona and California.
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Show AllThe Daily Show simply upheld Mr. Hick's 1st Amendment rights and DID NOT "skewer" - ITS MUCH MUCH MORE IMPORTANT!! and needs to be seen to be appreciated!
School Board member Mr. Hicks and his hot kicks include reaching for the branch from which the skewer was formed, chiseling it with inimitable discourse (even John Oliver pales in comparison with this) illustrating the nature of the ingrained racism and 'exceptionalism' with which these people, ignorant of the fascist nature of their chosen way of being, must be held in the light to reveal how they 'skewer' reality.
By the way, you might want to take a peek at Daily Show's interview with SCOTUS attorney Tom Goldstein while at the site...
It's Arizona. If you are not white, you better hide.
Hicks is a hick. He can barely complete a sentence and he is elected to the school board? I heard him speak and he registers way below ignorant. I don't know his age, but I do know his IQ is much lower. Brewer, Arpiao and Hicks. I was going to say "it's a good thing they are not in Washington and then I remember AZ sent McCain and Kyle." AZ seems to be a leader of the collapse of America. Can't wait until you all run out of water. It won't be long. It will be a well-deserved Gift from God.
"it’s a yet another glaring sign of right-wing desperation to control constituencies they fear by controlling access to information"
Of course the power of the Merkan right-wing rests in the carefully cultivated partnership between two powerful right-wing forces, das liberals and das konservatives. The elite's hellbird has a left and a right wing, but it straddles the extreme right gutter, so the left wing is nowhere near the true far left of the good/evil policy spectrum. Das konservatives appeal to, capture, and winnow the authoritarian side of human nature and das liberals appeal to, capture, and winnow the anarchic side of human nature. While das konservative strategy includes controlling information, das liberal strategy includes obstructing clarity. It accomplishes this mainly through mixing and confusing right and wrong, but also through the lie of omission. The lie of omission is a powerful tactic because a dedicated imagination is needed to perceive which part of the truth the liberals omitted. Exhibit A is the article above. If the article was framed in the people's concepts, ideas, visions, interests and aspirations, those elements of the human spirit are elevated, cultivated, and nourished by the public discourse. The people know today how very crucial it is for the public discourse to nurture the people's souls, aspirations, and initiatives. The connections between all that is good must be reinforced in the public discourse if the people are to achieve their potential, and recognize and defend what is rightfully theirs, the great sphere of holistic good, which includes universal enlightenment, solidarity, equity and justice. The liberals shudder at the thought. They need to preserve the hierarchical status quo of elite rule, to kontinue kollecting their empire spoils. The liberal lie of omission is part of the liberal's defiance, denial, suffocation, and strangulation of the human spirit, leading to the people's despair, resignation, and enslavement to elites. Thankfully, the people are learning today to throw off the liberal shackles and live with pure, perfect freedom of mind/spirit, which naturally leads the people together, in solidarity, toward their collective/cooperative nirvana. It's happening NOW despite the power partnership between das liberals and konservatives.
I think this is the Tucson Citizen's loss. The thing with bloggers is they are extremely mobile. I think the three Sonorano's readers will find them no matter where they move. I just wonder how the Tucson Citizen will counter their loss of traffic? A loss of 1.6 million clicks will certainly affect their advertisers.