Yesterday, after the conclusion of the public portion of the Vance County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, I was approached immediately by Mr. Kemp Collins and his son.
I knew that Mr. Collins was upset, because I had already fielded a voice mail from him during the meeting I was trying to cover. (I discovered later that there were two message, back to back, demanding that I call him tonight). What I did not realize was that he was upset enough to hunt me down wherever I happened to be, and that he had been sitting directly behind me for a good portion of the meeting. In his defense, however, my movements on meeting nights are pretty predictable.
Mr. Collins objected to comments made about him on Home in Henderson. Those comments may be reviewed on yesterday’s open line. He told me in no uncertain terms that he did not care for the comments and wanted me to remove them.
Mr. Collins explained to me that his “real job” with Home Credit Corporation did not like for him to be mentioned in a negative way on Home in Henderson. Apparently, it has happened before. He did say that WIZS has no problem with it.
I’m glad that WIZS has no problem with it. They had no problem bashing us on the radio some years ago in 2006. After that rocky start, however, we’ve developed a pretty good relationship. George Rush doesn’t spit on me when we run into each other, in any event. I’d even go so far as to say that each of us mentioning the other does us both good in terms of generating attention to our respective enterprises.
I explained to Mr. Collins that if someone were to accuse him of a crime without any evidence, of an immoral act, or something otherwise unfairly damaging to his livelihood or reputation, I would remove it. I also explained to him that because he has a radio show, he is a public figure, and therefore he is not provided the same protections that a private citizen enjoys on the site.
If his employers take issue with what has been posted about Kemp on HiH, I would say that he should consult an attorney to see if he has a case for an unlawful termination. It seems awfully unfair to reprimand or terminate an employee because of what someone said about their sports show on a blog, even one as venerated as Home in Henderson.
Mr. Collins then stated that he wanted every comment with his name in it removed. He explained to me that he enjoys access to mass media. He said that he has never said anything bad about me or my wife on the air. He said that the situation would change if I did not remove the comments.
I should point out that my wife is indeed a private citizen, as she doesn’t run a media outlet or have a radio show. But when someone wants you to lose your temper, sometimes they bait you by threatening your wife.
Kemp said that I have the power to delete negative comments about myself. That’s true, but I don’t. When you put yourself out there in mass media, you’re going to take some hits.
My response to Mr. Collins’ threat was this:
“Knock yourself out.”
Those who know me know that I don’t respond well to threats. Of course, most of the threats I get aren’t really credible. For example, I once had a parent threaten to take his case against me to the Federal School Board. I’m sure when one is convened, his case will be their first order of business.
Under the Communications Decency Act, Home in Henderson is not the publisher of reader comments and is not responsible for them. I don’t have to remove anything; however, I remove comments that would be considered libelous in traditional print contexts because I believe that it is the right thing to do, and I believe that my readers want me to moderate the conversation to some extent. I also remove that which I consider obscene, profane, racially biased, repetitive, disruptive, and deliberately false. Unfortunately for Kemp, criticism of him or his show doesn’t fall under any of those criteria. His attempt to stifle the speech of my comment posters by threatening to libel me and my wife on the air is both unbecoming to a radio personality and distasteful to anyone who values freedom of expression.
I encourage everyone to listen to Kemp Collins’ Sports Mayhem show on WIZS (1450 AM) from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. today. The show will gain at least one new listener today: me. Hopefully, I won’t have to ask my lawyer to listen to it as well. He charges by the hour.
And don’t forget Town Talk. Just in case.