Is the U of Arkansas a public institution? Does it receive government funding? If so, is this banning — which, I suppose, beats a more ostentatious burning, now a hipster photo-0p for self-righteous lefties — a violation of the First Amendment (should the WFB, for instance, remove the audio and simply replace it with a transcription)? I ask because I’m not a Constitutional attorney, though I’m fairly certain I’d be a better teacher of the Constitution that Obama, who dabbled in such at the University of Chicago.
WFB:
A Hillary Clinton donor who serves as dean of the University of Arkansas libraries has banned the Washington Free Beacon from the school’s special collections archives, after the news outlet published revealing stories about Hillary Clinton based on documents available at the university library.
The ban came days after the Free Beacon ran a story about Clinton’s 1975 defense of a child rapist that drew from audio recordings available at the University of Arkansas library’s special collections archives.
However, the ban was not mentioned in a June 16 email to this reporter from Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations at the university.
“Congratulations on another fine mining expedition into the University of Arkansas Libraries archives,” Voorhies wrote.
“I appreciate you raising the profile of the University of Arkansas Libraries special collections,” Voorhies concluded his email, while asking for advanced notice prior to future stories.
“I expect there is more you will find in coming months,” he said.
Library dean Carolyn Henderson Allen informed editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti in a June 17 letter that the library had “officially suspended” the Free Beacon‘s research privileges.
The Free Beacon published the Hillary Papers, drawn from the archive of the late Clinton confidante Diane Blair, in February. Those papers are also housed in the special collections at the University of Arkansas.
“I am writing you to direct you and the Washington Beacon Press to cease and desist your ongoing violation of the intellectual property rights of the University of Arkansas with regard to your unauthorized publication of audio recordings obtained from the Roy Reed Collection,” wrote Allen.
According to Allen, who contributed $500 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007, the Free Beacon violated library rules by failing to submit a form requesting permission to publish the materials.
Allen called on the news outlet to “immediately remove the audio recordings of the Roy Reed Collection from your website” and “immediately return all audio recordings obtained from the Roy Reed Collection previously provided to you.”
The Clinton donor also expressed deep disappointment with the Free Beacon.
“I am very disappointed in your willful failure to comply with the policies of Special Collections,” she wrote.
“The University of Arkansas takes great pride in making materials, such as the Roy Reed Collection, available to researchers from around the world. The University, however, does not tolerate the blatant and willful disregard of its intellectual property rights and policies.”
Allen said the university would consider lifting the suspension if the Free Beacon complied with all its demands to remove the materials from its website.
Allen’s letter was also copied to University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart, a former student of both Bill and Hillary Clinton at the law school.
According to the 1993 book Hillary Rodham Clinton: A First Lady for Our Time by Donnie Radcliffe, Gearhart recalled that as a professor, Hillary Clinton “expected a lot from us and gave a lot in return.”
[…]
“The Clinton machine and its army of librarians won’t be able to keep us out of that archive,” Continetti said in a statement. “Who knows? We may be in there right now.”
You’ll note that I never commented — either here or on Twitter — about Clinton’s “defense of a child rapist,” because frankly I don’t see anything wrong with it [cue: “Jeff Goldstein supports Child Rape Defenses,” archived in a certain websites vast collection of screen grabs]: lawyers in training have to be able to argue as Devil’s advocates, and when I taught persuasion, I in fact made it part of my class design to have students defend positions they opposed in order that they may sharpen the skills I was supposed to be teaching. It’s easy, I reason, to take the side you believe emotionally and defend it, but the defense is often sloppy because it is based on such a predetermined belief. Having to defend its obverse means having to learn the tools of persuasion and the craftsmanship of forming a compelling argument without relying upon emotional attachments to the subject matter.
So the story, while perhaps provocative and damning to some, left me somewhat meh; in fact, I reacted to it in very much the same way I did to the Letterman Palin “joke,” which I saw as a lazy comedic attempt to get a cheap laugh from a liberal audience, and not some “support of child rape,” as one colossal right-wing idiot put it at the time in one of his year-long attempts to see me marginalized [incidentally, note the number of comments on that post and posts in the years surrounding it; yes, it’s true! I at one point WAS a major voice on the right. Until the network decided to oust me]
This story, on the other hand, rankles. Yes, the University is claiming a misuse of its material; but I suspect that had the material been used to bolster Clinton’s profile in a positive way, there’d be no “banning” of the offending journalists, nor the fig leaf outrage over intellectual property being used without express written permission.
The truth is, there are countless skeletons is Ms Clinton’s innumerable closets — and it looks like at least some conservative outlets are going to refuse to let Hillary escape the kind of scrutiny Obama was (to the media’s everlasting shame) never made to endure.
Good on them. And, yet again, a university proves that it is the bailiwick of the progressive hive mind and as such, one of the most anti-intellectual spaces on the planet. Which I can write here, but were I to say it there, I’d have to get a permit, then stand inside a free speech zone to do so, no doubt.
(h/t sdferr)
The WFB’s lawyer responds to the UofA library.
h/t Treacher
I’m not outraged that she defended a child rapist (even the devil needs a defender). However, I AM outraged that Hillary apparently laughed about it on the tapes.
Mrs. Hillary Clinton has a heart of gold, so hands off you rat-bastards. Especially in public.
Gov. Scott Walker, on the other hand, is a black-hearted racist of the worst sort, so what say someone institute a star-chamber to get to the bottom of his long career of lawlessness and hate?
John Bradley
That letter is a thing of beauty. I look forward to the subsequent walk-back & groveling from U of A.
The laughter may have been uncomfortable, or nervous, etc.
I don’t think it much of a damning story. I think most lawyers have ice water in their veins.
I look forward to the subsequent walk-back & groveling from U of A.
Wouldn’t you expect a period of obstinate footstamping and defiance to intervene Darleen? Heck, any early acquiescence can only be entirely out of proper character, surely.
sdferr
You’re right. Must have the requisite hurrummphing and headshaking.
It would be nice that said WFB journalists were at the library right now asking for research access with a videocam rolling.
And then the said materials will mysteriously have disappeared, poof!, like emails on a crashed&trashed hard-drive.
I could be mistaken, but do seem to recollect a sort of declaration of a willingness to indulge in what we might term an underhandedness in reporting by Continetti when he first formed the WFB, modeling his organization along the lines long demonstrated by leftist publications as just an ordinary course of business. Hitting hard and below the belt, so to speak. Not that Mrs. Hillary actually has nuts to hit, mind.
like emails on a crashed&trashed hard-drive
What really irks me is that meme is wrong from the start. A hard drive crash doesn’t affect ANY emails. Emails live on the email server. Period. You *may* save select ones to your harddrive, but all your emails live on servers & the server backup systems.
argh
I disagree what Hillary says on those tapes is not a story. She promotes herself at the expense of her former client. She is rather cavalier about representing who she deems a “guilty” man over a 12 year old rape victim.
I do not fault her for doing her job as criminal defense counsel (or taking the case). But she made this a story by doing the interview with Esquire. And she probably violated attorney client privilege (I doubt she got a sign off from her client to do it).
And as I noted last week, attorney client privilege survives death.
But only for 6 months or so on the server backups and then only those that have not been downloaded to your own hard-drive because of the 500 meg limit.
It is a policy designed to cover up things.
6 months? SIX MONTHS??
WTF…
“a violation of the First Amendment?” – Yes, a public school is considered a level of goverment and the 1st Amendment has been incorporated by the 14th as against states (but that’s a subject for another day).
“I think most lawyers have ice water in their veins.” – Watch it, bub. That’s ice vodka.
Signed,
Proud Holder of a “C” in ConLaw.
On the subject of “how lawyers do” [things], would FBI Director James Comey qualify as a lawyer? He “do” with a shrug, evidently, a manifestly incurious shrug when it comes to investigation of possible serious law-breaking by IRS personnel.
What’s that “I” stand for in FBI, again? Is it “ignerence”, whether willful or otherwise?
Y’all see the new Palestinian three-finger gesture? It’s made to celebrate the capture of those three Jew kids a few days ago. It’s being taught to little Palistinian children, so’s they can learn to count to three the kidnapped 16 year olds and remind the Jews how little regard for Jew life Palestinians retain. Nice, right?
Much of a defense is not necessarily to have your client declared “not guilty” but, to make sure that they get only the punishment that fits the crime the prosecution can prove.
That would be the Federal Bureau of Incuriosity, sdferr.
Yup, it’s in Webster’s.
But only for 6 months or so on the server backups and then only those that have not been downloaded to your own hard-drive because of the 500 meg limit.
However, if the average small business owner operates under that policy, they will be in violation of numerous federal tax statutes, and lose any chance of walking away from an audit with more than the change in their pocket. Not even a bus pass.
When I first read that headline without my glasses on, I thought it said “Clinton Donor Bans Bacon From University of Arkansas Archives.”
Banning Bacon…from anywhere, would be a travesty.
I think most lawyers have ice water in their veins.
The medical term for that is sociopathy.