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Sterling's Librarian Censors
April 2001
The Director of the Conant Public Library in
Sterling has told Massachusetts News that she will not allow a
stack of the newspapers to be placed there for free distribution.
Director Patricia Campbell says the paper has a
political viewpoint which is different from hers and she is
therefore censoring it.
She refused to allow free copies despite the
fact that many others are piled in the library for residents of
the town.
The problem in Sterling first arose when the
paper's distributor, Jose Rafael, went there to ask permission to
leave some papers.
Campbell told him that he could not leave any
because they "did not have any room." When he then went
into the room where free newspapers are displayed, he saw there
was ample room for many more. However, Campbell still would not
allow him to leave any, even though she had obviously
misrepresented the facts.
When our Assistant Publisher, John Haskins, was
told about this, he telephoned Campbell to find out why she was
censoring the news.
She first replied with the same untruth she had
told the distributor. But when Haskins told her our distributor
had been there that day and had seen "plenty of space"
where other papers are placed, she responded that Massachusetts
News is not a "local" paper.
When told that there were other papers in the
library there that were not local, she admitted in a defiant tone
that other papers are there but Massachusetts News has a
"political" agenda.
When told that the Boston Globe also has a
political agenda, she responded that:
- The Globe's agenda is interesting to patrons.
- She does not believe our agenda is
interesting to the patrons of her library.
- She personally made the decision to exclude
this paper from the public library...
- To put Massachusetts News there with the
other papers, we would have to file paperwork and appeal over
her head to the Library Trustees, although other newspapers
are not forced to do so.
We replied that the U.S. and Massachusetts
Constitutions do not allow her to censor speech in a public
library according to her personal beliefs.
She answered that we can have our lawyer contact
her. Atty. Chester Darling will be doing that.
"We're told by feminists like Ms. Campbell
about alleged censorship in places like Mississippi and Kansas,
but this is perfect evidence that censorship is a serious problem
here in Massachusetts," said J. Edward Pawlick, publisher
of Massachusetts News. "If a librarian does not want people
to read all sides of an issue, she'd better find another job."
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