We should thank the online journalists at the Maine Monitor for including in their newsletter a link to Sen. Angus King’s list of Twitter and Facebook posters who posted critical opinions about him and his performance as an elected official.
Observing the reaction of Sen. King and his staff to adverse public comment has long suggested a thin skin, his staff serving as his public tentacle for carrying out the whiplash. The list reminds me of Richard Nixon’s blacklist or that of Joseph McCarthy in 1950, both of which did what the King list does: target individuals who they would prefer be silenced. Dan Rather, the eminent journalist, is just one who made Nixon’s list. We have to wonder how many others have made Sen. King’s list who have been targeted with the help of some arm-twisting of local editorial page writers.
Ethics among professional journalists seem healthy at the Maine Monitor. All media should applaud the effort.
Susan Cook
Bath
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