IMPT: LA Times Censoring Newsroom Internet Feed!

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/20/la_times_censors_new.html :

LA Times Censors Newsroom Internet Feed 

Peacefire, an anti-censorware site, says that journalists at the LA Times have told them that the LA Times has begun to censor the Internet feed in its newsroom. LA Observed says that the Times told them it uses Websense to restrict reporters' access to the Internet <http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/06/friday_deskclearing_5.html> , and that peacefire.org is blocked in the newsroom, along with many other sites.

This is the first example I've heard of a Western newspaper censoring its reporters' Internet feeds. The companies that sell censorware services deliver a notoriously biased and Orwellian system. For example, sites like Peacefire and Boing Boing, which report on the bad judgement in these services and expose their technical failings, are classed as "proxy avoidance." Once you start writing checks to these companies, they stop letting you see the sites that tell you why you should stop.

Some of these companies also provide censorship services to repressive governments, like those in China and Syria. A company called SmartFilter <http://www.boingboing.net/censorroute.html> provides such services to several governments; they offered to stop censoring Boing Boing if we would accept a secret deal to restructure our site to make it easier for them to block parts of it.

The LA Times has previously reported favorably <http://www.peacefire.org/archives/latimes.on.cybersitter.txt> on Peacefire's groundbreaking efforts to expose the corruption and bias in censorware companies. Now that the Times's reporters can no longer visit Peacefire's website, I suppose we shouldn't expect more articles on those lines.

(SNIP)
Link <http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/06/protecting_reporters_from.html>

Pls recommend and kick.

I guess it is only a matter of time.

This is only part of the explanation for the rightward shift of the LA Times. A lot of it has to do with the firing of Managing Editor Michael Kinsley in 2004 by the publisher, who is widely said to be a real ERW prick.