An addendum to today's story on Blumenthal and the media: Why has Blumenthal gone after this and not this?
That's a question conservative blogger and columnist Don Pesci has been asking for a while now. Could it be because craigslist is an "easy target?'' Pesci asks.
"If, for example, you successfully harass the owner of craigslist to surrender his First Amendment rights to publish legal ads on his site, can you, in good conscience, withhold your disapproval from Connecticut newspapers and other media outlets that run similar ads?'' Pesci writes. "Might not one of your political opponents charge that you have extended the long arm of your displeasure all the way to California, conspicuously reaching outside your own state, where charges that you are playing fast and loose with the First Amendment might sting and harm your chances to realize your life's ambition - to become, after January, Connecticut's junior U.S. senator? What happens in California may, one hopes, stay in California."
I put the question to Blumenthal recently and here's his response:
"Craigslist is unmatched in its scope and scale,'' Blumenthal said. "It reaches more people, it's effects in its ads for prostitution are more far reaching and some of it has bveen more explicit...it reaches more people and what weve said all along is, just as we did with MySpace and Facebook, we hope to make it a model of what can be done."
And, he added, just because Craigslist is in the crosshairs now that doesn't mean his office is "surrendering in any way other potential sites as an objective for action.''
But why not make the Advocate newspapers a model? (Disclosure: the chain is owned by Tribune Co., which also owns the Courant and this blog.) Is there a double-standard at play? Blumenthal says no.
"I'm leading a coalition of attorneys general on craigslist,'' Blumenthal said. "We're combining our resources as 17 attorneys general and we had more involved before...we're raising issues that I think will ultimately impact local ads for prostiution and I hope that craigslist does the right thing and provides a model.''