The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has criticized the decision by
Comcast to fire veteran journalist Barry Nolan for protesting against the decision
by the Boston chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to
award a special local Emmy to Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. The ACLU did not
indicate whether it was considering filing a lawsuit against the cable operator --
the nation's largest -- on behalf of Nolan. In a statement released Thursday, the
ACLU said that Nolan's firing was "most unfortunate, as it suggests that independent
journalism is not valued -- or perhaps even understood -- at Comcast." At the same
time the ACLU fired its own salvo at O'Reilly, saying in its statement that his "struggles
with fact-based journalism have been well documented by numerous independent sources,
making Mr. Nolan's firing all the more disturbing." Earlier this week Nolan observed
that he had merely passed out a leaflet containing O'Reilly's own words and quotes
from a sexual harassment lawsuit that O'Reilly settled out of court. "I got fired from
my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in
a room full of news people." Neither CN8, the Cox-owned channel that fired Nolan,
nor O'Reilly has commented on Nolan's firing.
30/05/2008
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