Edwards campaign tries to censor NC student's free speech

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3782379







From the sound of it, it was a really stupid story. But, it was even dumber for the Edwards folks to try to get it pulled.

Their next report should be on censorship.

DSB

HQ in a poor neighborhood instead of an affluent one.

Stupid, stupid story.

But not as dumb as trying to censor it.

Sometimes headquarters are just in the downtown...

the local news in Des Moines.

Which makes the ALLEGED reaction from the Edwards campaign really perplexing.

They are in a planned community south of Chapel Hill called Southern Village. Southern Village is about seven years old and is like a Disney version of an all-American small town.

I know that commercial rent is very high there and have wondered about the location.

his campaign headquarters should be located in Chapel Hill rather than in a poorer neighborhood and they tried to pull the story. Well it's getting more coverage now, dumb move.

Was there balance in this report?

Edwards' campaign workers did something stupid, IMO.

There's dumb and there's dumber- and then there are those who've simply been conditioned over the past 7 years to think that this is an acceptable sort of thing to do.

neither one belong in this race. The 2008 election series is comprised of seasoned, experienced campaigners.
The longer "Dumb and Dumber" stay in this race the more obvious it becomes neither is ready for Prime Time!

Then the rovey-dovey republicans win :shrug:

and yes, it was wrong to try to censure the story.

on their behalf. Granted, they're ultimately responsible but they honestly can't be on top of every single thing that's transpiring.

But I agree - stupid move to try to pull it.

In 2003, the Edwards campaign called the police on marijuana protesters in New Hampshire.

does not bother to seek any comment from the campaign.

The OP link

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3782379

Now it's "Edwards campaign tries to censor NC student's free speech" with different text

What a silly headline.

I don't know whether some unnamed senior staff at Edwards HQ did something stupid, but I suspect the story is being spun pretty hard. FYI both Charlie Tuggle and Carla Noel Babb appear to be registered Republicans. It might make their memory of all this and their retelling to reporters be less positive than if they were Dems. Maybe no bias. I don't know yet.

It was first reported by the reporter at the N&O who write "Under the Dome", sort of the NC political gossip column -- typically loaded with gotchas of everyone in NC gov/politics, R OR D, elected, appointed, staff, family.

AP, WRAL, Fox have all been pushing it relatively hard for a minor story. Check out wral.com for the comments posted on this. They even mention DU in one of the comments!

How do you know they are "registered Republicans"?

It took a slight bit of extra effort to be sure which Carla Babb was involved. Looked her up in the alumni directory to confirm her middle name.

To be completely accurate, I probably should say that public records show that each of them currently declares their party as Republican.

http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/votersearch/seimsvot.htm

Can anybody verify this to be true?

But it is true Edwards HQ is located in a high end development and not in a poor neighborhood. The student also reported both sides of the argument of whether this shows something about Edwards poverty message. If it does or it doesn't is for the viewer to decide. Who is in the wrong is the Edwards campaign. They really don't get to approve or disapprove a student journalism project. They have no business trying to get free expression quashed. And they certainly shouldn't be throwing his weight around with the university.

Referring to Collen Murray of the Edwards campaign:

"She said this sounds like it came straight from the Republican Party," Babb said. "She was like, 'This has to come down.' "

Babb responded to questions about being a Republican by discussing being an intern for Etheridge (D-NC) while an undergraduate.

At this point, I am just following this and watching how the "outrage" keeps getting spun up.

BTW Almost every UNC grad strongly supports free speech on campus. Look up the Speaker Ban Law of the 1960's for a sample of the fights the University has had over this.

That quoted a student who said if Edwards didn't agree with how he was being presented, he was right to request it be taken down. I don't agree with that viewpoint, but it seems Edwards will have his defenders on campus.

Also agree that it's stupid to try to prevent this stupid story from being heard.