Big Lacunae in the St. Augusinte Wreckord -- No Ed Hall Cartoon for Two Weeks

Philistine PHIL MCDANIEL (a/k/a PHIL THE SHILL a/k/a MEAN, HUMORLESS PHIL, a/k/a PHIL THE CENSOR OF POLITICAL CARTOONISTS AND REPUBLICAN LORD OF ALL HE SURVEYS)

Anywhere else but in Flori-duh, newspaper employees would call a strike.

For two weeks, cartoonist Ed Hall has been banned from the pages of the St. Augustine Wreckord, which apparently responded to pressure from our School Superintendent of the Year (who says he is good friends with the Wreckord's Publisher) and Philistine PHIL MCDANIEL (a/k/a PHIL THE SHILL), a mouthpiece for the ancien regime and political machine who is the head of the St. JOHNS CULTURAL COUNCIL.

PHIL THE SHILL McDANIEL should hang his head in shame -- head of an arts group, he had an artist fired because he is a narrow-minded carping harpy who doesn't understand freedom of expression.

So should the Wreckord hold its head in shame. Artistic anxd journalistic freedom are at stake. While the Wreckord defends fascist liar Ann Coulter's freedoms, it gave the heave-ho to one of the best cartoonists in America, Ed Hall.

So should the Morris Communications empire hold its head in shame.

When a government entity can pick up the phone and cause a journalist to be fired, we're in a Third World Country. We need more news media outlets like the New York Times and the Appalachian Observer (a/k/ Aggravatin' Disturber), which are fearless and hate corruption and eschew mediocrity.

The situation reminds me of East Tennessee, where all TVA Chairmen have had to do historically (for decades) is to call Scripps-Howard (or fly in a TVA jet to Cincinatti) and have reporters fired or transferred.

It is reminiscent of England's Henry II, who said of Saint Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury), "who will rid me of this meddlesome priest." Four knights murdered Becket.

PHIL McDANIEL is no knight, but he behaved like an assassin out of a tragic opera, attacking the cartoonist to further his own political agenda. With all the grace of a dancing Clydesdale horse, McDANIEL wrote a nasty Op-Ed column that unfairly goaded the Wrecord to fire a cartoonist. Shame on all of them. They have made our town and county look small -- and as President Clinton said in his Second Inaugural Address, "Nothing great was ever accomplished by being small."

The cartoon in quo didn't even refer to St. Johns County Schools or our School Superintendent. That didn't stop the firing squad of hubristic hooligans.

PHIL McDANIEL a/k/a PHIL The SHILL a/k/a PHILISTINE PHIL is a petulant millionaire used to getting his way. What evil lurks in the heart of PHIL? What other examples exist of PHIL's Philistinism?

Still waiting for that cup of coffee with the Publisher. As Robert F. Kennedy once wrote to Senator James O. Eastland of Mississippi, "repent now, there's still time."

If the Wreckord's reporters weren't afraid of their shadows, they'd at least call a byline strike, as Knoxville Journal and Wall Street Journal reporters did for lesser provocations. If one person's freedom of speech and freedom of the press is threatened, all of our rights are threatened.

Perhaps citizens might wish to picket the Wreckord, McDANIEL and the CULTURAL COUNCIL, whose crediblity is now in shreds because of its Chiarman's viciousness.

PHIL McDANIEL is invited to respond. Go ahead, make my day.