Black Sheep Rising – Episode 16
In this episode we discuss the upcoming race for city council, the latest cannabis decrim proposal in Keene and the successful copblocking of a recent DUI checkpoint in Walpole. Ian Freeman joins.
Sentinel Locks Down Web Content as Circulation Sharply Declines
In an apparent attempt to make themselves even less relevant in the 21st century, and like so many other newspaper websites, the Keene Sentinel is clamping down even further on their content. Managing Editor Paul Miller wrote a recent piece explaining the changes that went live on their website this week, which include limiting non-subscribers to only viewing ten articles per month. All this as their paid circulation rate has dropped more than 26% in the last five years.
It’s another move in a long series of desperate measures to extend the life of the 200+ year old paper. Several years ago, the Sentinel cut costs by reducing the width of the paper as well as reducing the total page count. They also raised prices to $0.75 daily and $1.75 Sundays. Potential buyers were being asked to pay more for a noticeably thinner paper. Guess what happened?
According to their certifier, the Alliance for Audited Media (aka the Audit Bureau of Circulations), the Sentinel’s paid daily average circulation numbers are seriously down in just the last five years. As of March 2013 their average paid circulation was 8,874. That’s down more than 26% from just five years ago in 2008 when they had 12,119. In 2003 they had 13,998 and in 1993 the total was 15,704. That means the paid circulation today is down 36% compared to ten years ago and down 43% to compared to twenty years ago. Ouch.
Put another way, in the ten years from 1993 to 2003, paid circulation rate dropped about 11%. In the next five years, to 2008, it dropped almost 14%. Finally, in five more years to 2013 it dropped nearly 27% – nearly DOUBLING the loss of the ’03-’08 timeframe! That huge loss happened after they chopped the paper size down and as more options for news opened up due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets and as their older-age subscriber base continue to die off. With under 200 digital subscribers as of March 2013, it’s clear that their digital component is not coming close to making up the difference. The paper’s answer to this quandary is to lock their content down further? (more…)
Attorney Jon Meyer Motions to Dismiss Robin Hood Case
While the “evidentiary hearing” in the Robin Hood case is set to continue this fall, heroic free speech attorney Jon Meyer has filed his motion to dismiss and memorandum of law in Cheshire superior court. In the memorandum, he outlines his reasons:
Meyer points out that the city’s claim of “tortious interference” on the part of the Robin Hooders fails to meet the requirements of a tort and if the city were successful in their case, the resulting order would violate the Robin Hooders‘ free speech rights. Even if the activists were not pleasant towards the parking enforcers, it would still be within their free speech rights, and the enforcers – as public employees – should not be shielded from criticism. Meyer is also an employment law attorney and points out employees have no right to work in a non-hostile work environment, as the city’s attorneys claim.
What will the city’s hired-gun attorneys say in response? Will there be a hearing on the motion to dismiss? Will the city’s precious case be tossed out? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the Robin Hood saga.
Ensuring Safety at a Suspicionless Checkpoint
Late into the evening of August 31, the New Hampshire state police established a suspicionless checkpoint on Route 12 in Walpole. The location seemed a strange choice, as the area is notably rural and does not see any heavy traffic. Presumably, this was also the first suspicionless checkpoint established in Cheshire county this year. A detail of about ten state police units and just under that amount of cruisers situated themselves in front of a large Citgo station and waited for drivers to ambush. For most, the checkpoint meant shuffling through one’s wallet to find their papers, drowning in a sea of backlighting for about two minutes, occasionally field-testing for sobriety, then being released upon their way.
While it is the position of the state that these sorts of rights-infringing checkpoints promote safety by increasing detection of impaired and possibly reckless drivers, individuals are detained at these checkpoints indiscriminately and during my time at the checkpoint itself, I observed only one car that was permitted to roll through with no detention. Since detentions were not based on suspicion of a driving offense, they essentially violate the fourth amendment of the US constitution as well as liberties enumerated in the New Hampshire constitution, but the framework of a supposedly free people is permitted to be violated so long as a person in a black robe authorizes the indiscriminate stops. Per NH law, the suspicionless checkpoint was announced in advance with a release published in the Keene Sentinel. Knowing that drivers needed additional notice of the checkpoint, activists set up signs warning of the checkpoint ahead and indicating where the final turnoff was to avoid the detention from either approach. (more…)
Aqua Kommunity Protest Fountain #1
This week’s episode of AKPF #1 is again interrupted by global conspiracy. Presented this week is Aqua Kommunity Protest Forum, an elegant glance into the differing perspectives and tactics of the community in advancing peace, liberty, truth, and justice. No DPRK officials arrived in capacity nor royal intervention occurred, and although the program formatted for television is limited in its time to 29 minutes, the entire duration of the event from multiple angles is available from Fr33manTVraw.
BEARCAT Controversy Continues in Concord
Photo: Andrea Morales
The BEARCAT issue in Concord festers further as the city council prepares for another hearing on the matter next Monday at 7:00pm. Today the Ridley Report published excerpts from a school board hearing which resulted in a decision by the ultimate propagators of all things ‘for the children’ — the Concord school board — to neither recommend nor block the acquisition of the federal government’s Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck. Ridley’s update includes B-roll footage from recent uploads to Fr33manTVraw as well as James Cleaveland’s LightSpeedLiberty channel. An update in last Thursday’s Keene Sentinel republished a Monitor article covering the board meeting and decision.
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