Bishop censorship now a statewide story

by: wizardkitten

Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 06:14:14 AM EDT

LANSING -- Blogging for Michigan, a liberal blog, is no friend of Senate Republicans. And they want none of it.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's chief of staff, Matt Miner, has ordered the Web site blocked from state Senate computers -- an action that has provoked cries of censorship from the liberal blogosphere and Senate Democrats. Republicans say it's a question of appropriate use of Senate equipment. Democrats say it's a question of free speech and using blogs to communicate with the public.

"It's a case of censorship, plain and simple. It's a very dangerous road to go down," Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, said Monday.

And the Battle Creek Enquirer-

State Democratic senators are crying foul after their access to a liberal Internet blog was blocked Thursday.

According to Tom Lenard, communications director for Sen. Mark Schauer, the order to block access to Blogging for Michigan from the Senate's Internet server came from Matt Miner, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, after Republicans apparently saw stories posted to the site they didn't like.

The AP story from Dave Eggert has been picked up by many news organizations.

Mike Bishop will be on Walt Sorg's AM Lansing show today at 8:40. 1320 WILS on your radio dial in the Lansing area.

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have ourselves a "media event". If you see any more news, post a link in the comments below.

Once again Mike Bishop escapes having to work on the budget, but he certainly is defining himself as an obstructionist. 

Now the whole state will know that Mike Bishop will censor speech he doesn't approve of.

UPDATE: Chad Livengood from the Jackson Citizen Patriot was the first to break this story - he now has an update here. Make sure you check it out!