Humboldtian

Know how you can stop telemarketers from bugging you by registering your telephone number with the national Do Not Call Registry? One of the best pieces of Congressional legislation in recent memory.

Now a state legislator in Maryland wants to create such a registry for newspapers.

I think it's a great idea and California should do the same. Wouldn't it be loverly if you all you had to do is go online, type in your address, and kazaam! no more Eureka Reporters? No more Tri-City Weeklies? Such a registry would likely expedite the death of both publications, but really, who would miss them?

The newspaper industry back there in the East is lobbying against the proposed law. It argues that a "don't deliver' registry is unnecessary, because those who don't want their driveways littered with free dead-tree publications can just call the publication and delivery will cease. Yeah right. We've seen how well that has worked with the Reporter and the Tri-City.

The First Amendment/free speech argument is also being floated. If a citizen makes the effort to stop delivery of a publication she or he does not want, whose free speech rights are being violated? Having spent 20 years in journalism as a tenacious advocate for the First Amendment, I don't buy that argument at all. The telemarketers' lobby tried to make the same argument, and it was rejected.

Under such a law, a publication could pay sizeable fines if it delivers to addresses on the registry. I love the idea of Rob Arkley or Dean Singleton paying fines for littering the streets of Humboldt County with the Reporter and Tri-City. If you don't know, Arkley, owner of Security National, a locally based international company and major player in the sup-prime loan industry, owns the Eureka Reporter, and Singleton is the CEO of the parent company, Media News Group, that publishes the Times-Standard and the Tri-City.

A few years ago, the Arcata City Council considered an anti-litter ordinance, aimed at curtailing the Tri-City. This was before the the Reporter started home delivery, I believe. To the best of my recollection, the ordinance failed to get enough votes on the Council, after heavy pressure from the Times-Standard.

The Tri-City, like other weekly shoppers, is probably headed for extinction soon anyway, Craig's List playing the role of Grim Reaper. I haven't paid for a classified ad in a couple of years. I get tremendous and instant response from Craig's List, even when advertising garage sales, which I put on annually in the spring.

I plan to monitor this piece of legislation as it makes its way through Maryland legislature.