“SF Supes Step in First Amendment Quagmire in Seeking to Update Newspaper Contracts”
An interesting story in Public Comment (Annie Gaus):
A new proposal by two San Francisco Supervisors to make “journalistic standards” a condition of City advertising contracts may be legally dubious, according to two leading First Amendment scholars.
Backing away from an earlier move to withhold City advertising funds from one local paper specifically, The Marina Times, the Board voted on Tuesday to approve placing ads in the 36-year-old paper, which circulates in a handful of Eastern neighborhoods.
Instead, Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Dean Preston announced that they are “reviewing options” to change Prop J, a 1994 law governing newspaper advertising contracts, to incorporate what Preston called “certain basic journalistic standards.”
The imbroglio began at a grievance-laden Board of Supervisors meeting last week, during which Supervisors complained about what they considered unfair or inaccurate coverage by The Marina Times, making reference to “hate speech” and “disinformation,” though no Supervisors provided any specifics. In a 7-4 vote, the Supervisors voted to single out T
Article from Latest – Reason.com
