Although it’s no longer Daniel Patterson Monday at Weekly World Central, we bring you another, albeit small part, in the ongoing Patterson saga — this one involving a local blogger, a Gannett blog once though impervious to litigation threats and yes, Daniel Patterson.
Three Sonoran’s David Abie Morales shared with the Range that he was instructed on March 29 by Tucson Citizen editor Mark Evans to take down a post that referenced Patterson, as well as Tucson Unified School District board member Michael Hicks.
By e-mail Evans contacted Morales and asked that he delete a sentence from a March 26 post titled, “Is the world conspiring against Rep. Patterson.”
David,
Rep. Patterson has again involved Gannett corporate in his complaints about you.I need you to delete this sentence:
“Then again, I don’t know what it is like to have rich parents or a father who was a mayor to shower privilege upon me by hiring lawyers to always get charges dropped.” that is in this post:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2012/03/26/is-the-world-conspiring-against-rep-patterson/And then I need you to delete this entire post:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2012/03/28/a-quick-lesson-in-racism-for-rep-patterson-and-other-non-minorities/I need you to do this today as soon as possible and let me know when you have.
Thanks
Mark—
Mark B. Evans
Editor/Administrator
TucsonCitizen.com
520-573-4614 office
520-603-2796 cell
http://tucsoncitizen.com
Evidently, Patterson has successfully gone this route in the past by going directly to Gannett’s corporate office. He e-mailed corporate on March 28:
Ms. Wilson — More lies again on the ‘Three Sonorans’ blog. Please call me to discuss, 520.906.2159 . Mr. Evans has so far not been responsive. Thanks.
On March 28, Patterson e-mailed Evans:
My father has never been a Mayor. I pay all my own legal bills. I have worked and supported myself my entire adult life. Charges only get dropped when they are weak or wrong, not because of lawyers I have to pay for due to the false allegations of others, including Morales. Thanks, Rep. Patterson
Evans’ response:
Rep. Patterson,
I’ve been dealing with family issues the past few days and have been responding to email as I can.
However, as for your complaint Monday about a post by David Morales, your message seemed to me to be more complaining about David in general than anything specific.
If you could elaborate more on your message (pasted below) and let me know what exactly is untrue, I can forward that to David for response and take it from there.Then again, I don’t know what it is like to have rich parents or a father who was a mayor to shower privilege upon me by hiring lawyers to always get charges dropped.
Total lie. This racist liar doesn’t know me or my family. Why do you continue to host him? His BS on this issue could cause a big lawsuit. Daniel
—
Mark B. Evans
Editor/Administrator
TucsonCitizen.com
520-573-4614 office
520-603-2796 cell
http://tucsoncitizen.com
Thanks,
Interesting approach for Patterson to take, as well as taking the tea-bagger description of Morales as a “racist liar,” but then again, the Three Sonorans blog has regularly covered Patterson’s problems from almost the beginning. However, Three Sonorans has gladly pointed out that the Tucson Weekly’s Hank Stephenson deserves heaps ‘o credit for his early piece in “The Family Man,” on Sept. 30, 2010.
Evans’ request to remove items from a Tucson Citizen-hosted blog is interesting, too. Wasn’t the great thing about Tucson Citizen on-line life is that it is impervious to lawsuits because Evans doesn’t edit or make editorial decisions on copy posted on the different blogs?
We e-mailed Evans for comment and this is his reply:
No, as with anything published on the internet, any blogger who writes something that’s false that causes harm can face a libel suit.
We (the Citizen/Gannett) assert that because we don’t edit or control the content in any way, and anyone who wants a blog can have one, within reasonable limits (must be about Tucson/So. AZ/Arizona, or written by a So. AZ resident), we have protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from being dragged into that suit.
Many blogging sites, including the Huffington Post, make a similar assertion. However, that’s never been litigated.
So when someone claims there is false information on the site that is causing them harm it is in the site’s best interest for me to take a series of steps to resolve the complaint. (Plus, I don’t want false information on the site, though that’s hard for me to police since there are more than 100 blogs. I usually have to rely on someone to complain that something is false).First, I refer the complainant to the blogger so the two can work it out.
That usually solves the problem right there.
If it doesn’t, the complainant can return to me and ask me to take action. Since I don’t know what is true, I ask the complainant to explain in detail what’s untrue in the blog post and what the truth is.
I then ask the blogger to explain why they’ve written what they have and who or what their sources are. I then determine if any change needs to be made to the blog post.
It’s only ever gotten this far five times in the three years TucsonCitizen.com has been a blogging site, all involving David Morales. In each case he either changed what he had written to be more accurate or he deleted the post entirely.
If a blogger refuses to change or delete a post I’ve determined has false information that causes harm I will delete it myself. If it happens again (refusing to make a change) I’ll delete their blog and revoke their login. That’s never happened.
Hope this helped, write or call if you need more info.
Mark
Morales told the Range that he never claimed Patterson’s father was a mayor. That was in reference to Hicks.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2012.
As of this date and time Red Star ceases to respond to dat towering intellect and general purpose two-bit little Gannett tool known as Mark B. Evans, aka Editor/Administrator.
Abie Morales is a wanna be journalist who spews half truths, shades of the truths and sometimes stright up lies. It’s a waste of time to even give him the time of day, sometime I wonder how he makes it through the day with that chip the size of Texas on his shoulder.
What complete cowards! Afraid of a lawsuit, whatever. That was a bullshit excuse if I ever heard one. If I had a dime for every time I was threatened with a lawsuit for something I wrote…
the weekly should pick him up.
Thanks for posting this revealing report. I’m disgusted with the censorship of the Tucson Citizen. Their policy stated more accurately would be “anyone who wants a blog can have one AS LONG AS WE LIKE WHAT THEY SAY.”
Their loss. Abie is ever clear that he is a blogger and not a journalist. Anyone who reads him gets what he is up to. What may look like bias or defamation to the paranoid is simple passion and commitment.
What the Tucson Citizen loses is a dedicated first responder. When readers want the latest update, Abie or his sources are on the spot. I don’t know if there’s a record somewhere, but I know that Three Sonorans is the blog I look to first for breaking news, for a relentless fight for wrong to be righted, and for off-the-grid stories relevant to Southern Arizona liberals. The Citizen is now officially dead to free-thinkers, and Mark Evans is looking about as good as Daniel Patterson and Michael Hicks. Great company.
“Wasn’t the great thing about Tucson Citizen on-line life is that it is impervious to lawsuits because Evans doesn’t edit or make editorial decisions on copy posted on the different blogs?”
This was Evans’ opinion. I attended an Internet law course at a conference last year. I specifically asked a Tucson Citizen-related question of the lawyer/instructor (who had argued and won several Internet/facebook cases involving smear campaigns and false light). He said that the Citizen, Evans, Gannett, the advertisers, and the offending blogger could be sued.
Is it really Kosher to publish someone’s personal e-mail communication without permission?
The entire site is down now – all history. It’s unfortunate ~ sort of like trying to rewrite history. I hope Abie saved the posts somewhere and plans to revive the blog elsewhere.
Morales is a tireless advocate for his cause and has broken some good stories.
Unfortunately he is also irrational and dishonest and thinks nothing of stooping gay bashing or any lie in order to smear anyone he perceives as his enemy.
I stopped reading him after he started smearing Matt Heinz, which is too bad because
I agreed with his cause – but he is an ongoing slander factory and hurt his cause as much as he helped it.
I hope they can find a reasonable advocate to replace him
The Three Sonorans is a wealth of history and information. Prolific, courageous, honorable, brilliant about many things, a great voice much needed and appreciated. I hope you feel supported Abie Morales, and continue to strive. This is United States Arizona 2012… and a lot of people are refusing to go silently to their graves but rather stand on their land with pride in their souls. This is the renewal, the liberation, and will be checking out the new Three Sonorans site as soon as I hear of it.
About time, Brown KKK is what he was
Abie Morales may tell you he believes in freedom of speech, but his dirty tactics have finally caught up with him. Weeks ago he blocked me from posting on Three Sonorans because I struck a nerve and didn’t support his views. His friend Mari knows he burns bridges and turns on people he used to be tight with, like Carlos Galindo and Steve Leal. Keep on burning bridges, lying and taking away people’s right to post on a blog and it finally bites you in the butt. Maybe Abie and Sean Arce should start their own charter school catering to angry social outcasts.
Sadly, it was the only Tucson Citizen blogger I ever read. It was often shared by many of my friends.