Censored Updates

Ben Chandler condemns the ban.

Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY), whose district includes the state capitol, has just come out firmly against the policy. "I believe the recent action of the Fletcher administration to block access to a handpicked number of blogs is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution," Chandler said through a spokeswoman. "This flies in the face of a fundamental right of free speech."

Ryan Alessi of the Herald-Leader

In that story, Mark Nickolas, publisher of the Bluegrassreport.org blog, criticized Fletcher's administration for trying to "play by their own rules even if it's against the law."

He was referring to the state government hiring investigation, which led to Fletcher's indictment on three misdemeanor charges for political discrimination, conspiracy and official misconduct.

Nickolas is the former campaign manager for Ben Chandler, Fletcher's Democratic opponent in the 2003 governor's race.

In an interview, Nickolas said the timing is more than suspicious.

"But all this is going to do is draw more attention to it," he said. "It is an example of the low political IQ of the administration, that they think they can censor political speech to keep people in line."

Speech isn't limited because employees are free to post their thoughts on Bluegrassreport.org or other blogs on their own time, Midkiff said.

All blogs -- conservative, liberal or non-political -- will be blocked as the state's Commonwealth Office of Technology becomes aware of them, she said.

A half-dozen state employees notified Nickolas this morning that they had been blocked from seeing the site.

Shortly after Nickolas announced the ban on Bluegrassreport.org, other national blogs leaped on the story.

TPMMuckraker.com posted several items on its site and contacted the governor's office to find out about the action. Less than an hour after blogger-reporter Paul Kiel contacted the administration, state employees no longer could access Kiel's site.

In an interview, Kiel said that in his reporting on other state capitals around the state, he hadn't seen any similar actions.

He credited Bluegrassreport.org with being more aggressive than most state political-commentary sites.

"He's been pretty remarkable in that respect," Kiel said.

For more details, see Thursday's Herald-Leader.