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Editorial: Anti-Environmental Bill: Save Florida From Harm
May 16th, 2013

Editorial: Problem Ordinances
May 8th, 2012

Editorial: Cedar Key Arts Show
April 28th, 2012

Editorial: Cedar Key Arts Show
April 20th, 2012

Editorial: Status of Nuclear Power as Savior
March 15th, 2012

Editorial: Advice to Letter Writers
February 13th, 2012

Editorial: 2011 is History
January 7th, 2012

Editorial: The History of Island Nations
December 24th, 2011

Editorial: Why You DON’T Pay for the Cedar Key News Online
November 11th, 2011

Editorial: Hoppin’ John ***
November 3rd, 2011

Editorial: What Decline?
October 10th, 2011

Editorial: Notes from a Slightly Bigger Island
October 8th, 2011

Editorial: Barking Mad
October 5th, 2011

Editorial: Fix the Bridges!
September 11th, 2011

Editorial: Catching the Right Wave
July 27th, 2011

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Speaking About Speak Out

Speaking About Speak Out

Editorial

Cedar Key News has recently received "input" regarding the value and or undesirability of Speak Out. Strangely, some readers have used Speak Out to express their objection to its existence. Another reader cited the fact that several founding fathers of our country published their opinions anonymously in what are now known and revered as the Federalist Papers.


More recently, the Freedom Wall in Beijing was used to criticize the Chinese government. The need for anonymity stemmed from fear of reprisal, a justified fear. In the United States an anonymous source called Deep Throat was instrumental in forcing the resignation of President Nixon. (Nixon's Attorney General, John Mitchell, tried to intimidate the publisher of the Washington Post with metaphoric threats of violence.) Not long ago a man who spoke out at a Commission meeting found roofing nails in his driveway and his boat cut adrift. Speak Out provides a place for opinions to be expressed without fear of retaliation.


Cedar Key News does not vouch for the truth of anything posted in Speak Out. We do not edit postings in any way, on pain of losing our legal protection. However, our current policy is to have an author's name with each posting. Furthermore, we are considering a mechanism that requires registration to access certain specified sections of our paper. Speak Out may be so specified. Registrants will not be identified as readers or posters. That section will keep unregistered readers from accidentally reading an opinion that is offensive to them. Registered readers must recognize postings for what they are, i.e. opinions.


When the Florida Department of Transportation threatened to cut down the trees along State Highway 24 a timely posting on Speak Out brought out a protest that saved the trees. Opinions on such as the Arts Festival, political candidates and the need to enforce state law must be taken for what they are, opinions. Let us hear what the people of Cedar Key think about the need for Speak Out.

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Cedar Key News

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