Among the child custody issues, domestic disputes, restraining orders and other typical family law cases, one very unusual, potentially precedent-setting free speech court hearing barely made a ripple today in the packed Shasta County Superior Court.
I was there to report the outcome of a temporary restraining order filed last month by Christy Lochrie, Record Searchlight reporter, against Beth Norby, an environmental consultant.
Norby created a satirical Web site, No Phat & Pink Chicks, about Lochrie’s very real Record Searchlight blog, Phat & Pink.
Lochrie’s order called for Norby to: “Cease harassing blog site and cease comments on Christy Lochrie’s Redding.com blog and any other comments that relate to Christy Lochrie in an online format.”
It’s a mad, mad, mad world when a journalist – a quasi public figure no less -orders such a broadly worded cease and desist upon a private citizen’s ability to express satire and opinions. And so broadly.
Talk about chilling. Talk about frightening ramifications.
“It seems that when you can’t voice dissent with the media, we have a big problem,” Norby said today before the hearing. “But when the media hunts you down for dissenting comments, there is a very serious problem.”
The judge didn’t rule on Lochrie’s restraining order – which, by the way, was previously denied pending today’s hearing – but moved it to trial for Feb. 13.
So many crucial issues are at stake in this unusual case: satire, blogs, self expression, opinion, the Internet, but mostly, the First Amendment and free speech.
For all.
Not just journalists.
Don’t expect coverage of this story in the Record Searchlight.
Do expect coverage of this story here. Stay tuned.
