Well, we’ve certainly had a number of posts leading up to this hearing asking that if you could, it would be wonderful if folks could come out to support us. We’ve made it clear that this bill was aimed directly at GraniteGrok and I am glad to say that NH State Rep Jan Schmidt made it CLEAR that “a website” was guilty of this.
Great timing – I was the next person to give testimony. I asked the Chair, Remy Cushing, for a bit of time after my remarks since I represented the ‘Grok, I wanted to address some of the points she made – it was allowed.
Here is my testimony:
“I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It.
-Voltaire
‘To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize”
-Voltaire
I can’t describe to you what pornography is but I know it when I see it.
-Supreme Justice Potter Stewart
Good morning,
My name is Skip Murphy and I am here in opposition to HB1159 – a bill that I believe is poorly written as it depends solely on subjective feelings of those that believe they have been harassed, intimidated, doxxed, or threatened; those words are vaguely worded. It is a perfect instrument that can be used to silence those that disagree with Public Servants on moral, religious, or political standings. Or, simply don’t like the fact that others hold differing opinions than they hold. Those words, can and have, already been weaponized against those of opposing political world outlook.
I am the co-founder and owner of GraniteGrok.com. We started in 2006 thinking that, other than our family members, perhaps 5 or 6 people a week might visit us – and we weren’t sure about our families. Today, we often have more online traffic than the Union Leader and we’re not too far behind WMUR in traffic as analyzed by Alexa.com, Amazon’s website ranking system.
Our standards of measures are simple: the US and NH Constitutions and the Conservative planks of the NH GOP Platform (even as I dryly note that I am not a registered Republican – of our ragtag bunch of volunteers (none of us are paid), there are several Independents and even a couple of Democrats). Violate the precepts and values of those, we will most likely opine about you and what you have said or done. Perhaps, even several times.
We don’t care if you are male or female or have a D after your name or R or L or S or anything else. We just don’t care. If you say something or do something we consider to be rather stupid, we’ll write about it. Don’t want us to write about you, don’t say or do stupid things (like Rep Deb Stevens opining that Trump Supporters are about to start a Civil War).
But there are a number of people who don’t like that we notice their actions and then tell our readers. In fact, one of the sponsors of this bill did exactly that – contacted the hosting company of Josh Moore’s Patriot Initiative and said it should be shut down over Hate Speech (e.g., they were in favor of traditional marriage and not gay marriage). It remained down for a few days until a lawsuit over Free Speech was threatened.
Sidenote: And I pointed out that it was NH State Rep Jan Schmidt that did both. I also pointed out that the entire tale is on GraniteGrok and that if the Committee wanted, I would forward all of the URLs / Internet addresses pointing them out. The above seemed to cause some concern and discomfort to the Committee members.
She also claimed that we had so harassed the four female Democrat Reps in Merrimack that they needed police protection. We issued a Right To Know demand to the Merrimack Police and they, in no uncertain terms, they said that was false. So the definition of “harassment” is rather “fungible”.
Sidenote: This didn’t go over well at all.
This same state rep tried to shut us down because we opined a number of times and she called us Hatemongers. I have the emails that were sent NH State Rep Jan Schmidt to my hosting company. And, of course, I have placed everything I’ve just said on GraniteGrok – I have nothing to hide.
Sidenote: And the above was written BEFORE Schmidt gave her testimony – thus, I was able to emphasize the information she failed to include – lies of omission which she uses often in trying to craft her side of the story. And that I don’t.
Where do I go when harassed by such a Public Servant using their position of power simply due to differing stances?
I see this bill in a similar manner as SB469, relative to shooting ranges: change the language, change the meanings. By placing almost impossible restrictions on ranges for noise (AND doing away with grandfathered protections) by towns and instituting low noise levels, they can be put out of business.
HB1389, relative to the care of animals, makes it so onerous in how to treat, house, and feed them that people may not wish to own pets anymore
This Bill, 1159, because of the vague wording, would chill Free Speech and the Freedom of the Press.
This would include:
- First Amendment (freedom of speech, freedom of the press)
- Article 4 – Right of Conscience
- Article 8 – Right to Know
- Article 22 – Free Speech, Liberty of the Press
- Article 30 – Freedom of Speech
I also note that these kinds of bill are being introduced in States around the country – the most notable being in Virginia.
Doxxing – this is the process of publishing private personal information of public servants. I dryly note that the NH Legislature’s own website currently does exactly this – and it would make it a misdemeanor for me or my writers to copy that information to inform our readers on how to contact that legislator. Even just setting up a link to that page would be illegal.
Sidenote: I asked how the Legislature would sue itself over doxxing itself. No one laughed, unfortunately.
So think of the side havoc this could have on the Press – and perhaps one of the strongest tools that a Citizen has – The Right To Know (RSA 91:A)
I ask that you find this bill Inexpedient to Legislate
I thank you for your time and consideration and I am open to any questions.
Skip Murphy
**************
I also addressed her notion that I refused to take down the image of her daughter outside of the above testimony. In fact, NH State Rep Nancy Murphy made it quite easy in one of the questions asked by the Committee after my testimony; she wanted to know why I didn’t take the image down. Reasons?
Schmidt only mentioned “her daughter”. I answered that we were talking NOT about a minor child of Schmidt’s but a grown woman. One who put her image up on Facebook and it was passed along to us when her daughter threatened a citizen in Nashua (and that post was removed).
Just a quick note on the testimony of the Prime Sponsor, NH State Rep Diggs – her’s took the longest and received the most questioning of which much was about Free Speech incursions, the seeming attempt to “uplift the Ruling Class” in that it gives special privileges to elected officials – and it wasn’t necessary to extend those same privileges to we the citizens.
THIS is dangerous thinking – but I also note that all of the sponsors are Democrats leaning Socialists so I’m not surprised.
We’ll have to wait for the Executive Session to see how the vote will go on this.
The date for this is scheduled for NEXT WEEK: 2/5/2020 (next Wednesday) 1 pm Legislative Office Building (“LOB”) room 204
NOTE: my cameras didn’t run long enough and I missed most of the hearing. However, a Hat Tip (H/T) to Josh Rogers who will be sharing his audio with us. Plus, I learned that this Committee is now being audio recorded – I will try to get access to that as well.
