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Chuck Turner seeks to limit First Amendment

The presumed innocent until proven guilty Turner is seeking legislation that would make it a crime to discuss criminal cases before a verdict is rendered - including a mechanism to fine newspapers that violate the "presumption of innocence." He did so in a letter to Gov. Patrick, possibly because his district no longer has a state senator.

Full text of Turner's letter, in which he specifically goes after the Herald's Joe Fitzgerald, the Globe's Joan Vennochi and the Phoenix's Adam Reilly (via Dan Kennedy, who notes Turner cites the Bible, the Koran and the 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments but not, no doubt due to a simple oversight, snort, the 1st):

Mass media outlets must be prohibited from spreading information that conflicts with the presumption of innocence. Legislation should create standards of financial responsibility in order to compensate inviduals whose right to presumption of innocence has been violated.

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Comments

There have been Supreme Court cases over this. All I can say is a normal person may have a case for a lawsuit, but as a public persona who was all about media attention up until a few weeks ago Chuck Turner signed away his right to expect privacy by law.

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They have a Joe Fitzgerald, and a Jay Fitzgerald, but I've never heard of a Joy Fitzgerald.

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My fingers conspired to hit the wrong key on the keyboard, despite my three years of typing class (don't ask).

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3 years? 3 YEARS? Of typing? ;-)
What does one study in their 3rd year of typing?
Curious minds want to know....and may be sorry they asked... ;-)

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Because it's fairly boring:

In middle school, we moved around a lot (ah, the wonders of a messy divorce) and none of the schools trusted the records from the other ones, so I kept getting put in the vocational track, which meant I got to take lots of shop classes (I took wood shop twice, and sucked at it both times, don't ever let me near a plane if you need a level side of something; also, it's truly sad the kidlet will never get to experience the joy that is print shop) and typing. Over and over again. So I got fairly good at it, despite myself, except for numbers, which I never figured out how to type without looking at the keyboard. And since I started in a middle school and, finally, ended up in a junior high school, I'm one of the few people to actually complete four years in a school between elementary and high school. That might explain some things (fortunately, by the last year of JHS, I learned the way to stop getting bullied was to convince the biggest, meanest SOB in the school, the one who eventually got sent away for punching the dean of boys in the eye, was that I was even crazier than he was and would not hesitate to throw a chair at him if need be, which fortunately I never had to actually do).

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Ah yes, the old throw one chair and your set for life routine. Works quite well, expecially if your the darling of the teachers. The bullies are afraid that your going to hit them with a chair and the teacher wont believe them when they go crying for help.

Not that Im advocating these sorts of tactics but I think its a shame that in many schools these days something like that could lead to much more serious ramifications then when we were kids, yet the bullies can still tease, taunt, poke and prod.

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Because he was already linebacker size and he could have easily deflected a chair. Unless that chair was thrown at him at high speed. He happened to be around at the end of the day when a friend and I tossed our chairs into our home room, creating a chain reaction in which pretty much every single chair stacked on a desk went flying. It was pretty dramatic and made quite the impression on him (wait, did I just admit to doing something incredibly stupid and pointless in my youth?).

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You my friend just gave up your chance to run for public office. We now have the dirt on you.

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What, no "Chuck the First Amendment"? "Freedom of Speech: Chucked"? "Turner To Press: Chuck You!"?

I await tomorrow's Herald with bated breath.

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Something playing off "upchucking."

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Then we could have Better Chuck Next Time.

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... we can work in a "Where's The Beef?" reference along with Ground Chuck.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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