Political Deception Enables Illegality in Libraries; Palm Beach County Attorney Denise Nieman of Bush v Gore 2004 Fame

School teacher Jill Sheffield describing what
her students saw on a class trip
to the public library.

There have been numerous undercover reports of library crime over the years.  Never have any been so significant as this one that rises above the level of the library to expose political deception that facilitates illegality in public libraries, in this case by Bush v Gore 2004 Palm Beach County Attorney Denise Nieman.  Watch this CBS 12 News report:

• "Protecting Kids from Porn," by Michael Buczyner, CBS 12 News, 31 October 2013.  [archive link]

Listen carefully to that report as both the County Attorney and the library's director John Callahan refuse to go on camera in a case involving elementary school children on a class trip to the library seeing inappropriate material and the library telling school teacher Jill Sheffield the First Amendment allows that.  Both say the issues are just too complicated for the public to understand.

Or just look at this still from the CBS 12 News report where the County Attorney is saying people are too stupid to understand why porn should be allowed in public libraries: "Nothing good can come from appearing on air because this is a complicated subject and needs more that the typical few edited seconds allowed."  Remember, this is a public servant supposedly saying it is a "complicated subject" and refusing to go on air to explain her legal opinion that goes against the law and may be unethical:

Here is County Attorney Denise Nieman ducking having to answer to the public.

How complicated can it be?  Anyone can read and understand the very case Denise Nieman completely left out of her legal opinion because it opposed her diktat and because it found the exact opposite of what she recommended, such as with regard to "privacy screens":

• United States v. American Library Association, 539 US 194 (2003)

And the library is violating the law and defrauding the federal government of millions under CIPA.  By $2.3M dollars.  Who signed those false certifications to the federal government that resulted in that ill-gotten windfall?  That also violates federal law, does it not?  The False Claims Act perhaps?

I look forward to more reporting on this from Michael Buczyner and CBS 12 News.  I especially look forward to this story setting an example for media to investigate the political control that keeps the illegality flowing in public libraries and keeps the public in the dark, as Denise Nieman illustrates.

For what its worth, here I am in that report, and thank you Michael Buczyner for your work in this regard, and thank you Denise Nieman for illustrating exactly how political leaders/attorneys mislead entire communities into accepting that which is perfectly legal to exclude and may actually be excluded by law:

Here I am on CBS 12 News exposing the harm done by Denise Nieman.

If anyone is interested in seeing letters I have sent to Palm Beach County advising of the potential for liability if it continues to allow the library to act outside the law, and in seeing the unprofessional response of Denise Nieman, including her attacking the school teacher for mistaking "a music video ... that showed scantily-clad women dancing in the background" for what the teacher and her students actually saw, see:

• "In the Matter of Modernizing the E-rate Program for Schools and Libraries, WC Docket No. 13-184," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 16 September 2013.

Learn from the author of the Children's Internet Protection Act author how communities are being misled by the likes of Denise Nieman and what can be done to stop it, including passing state and local laws modeled on the federal CIPA law, and see what he says about me:

• "Children's Internet Protection Act Author Ernest Istook Interviewed," by Dawn Hawkins, Morality in Media, 17 April 2012.

By the way, even the American Library Association now admits library Internet filters work, work well, no longer block health-related information, and blocking breast cancer is an old excuse:

• "ALA Admits Library Filters Work; Barbara Jones Bursts Her Own Breast Cancer Bubble," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 3 February 2012.

My greatest thanks go to Jill Sheffield, the teacher who stood up for her school children in the first place, who picketed in front of the library, and to her school for supporting her.  I encourage other school teachers to speak out as well when they see something wrong.

Speaking of school teachers seeing something wrong, the American Library Association is in schools trying to stop them from filtering the Internet even there, calling it "Banned Website Awareness Day":

• "A Call for Opening Up Web Access at Schools," by Winnie Hu, The New York Times, 28 September 2011.

NOTE ADDED 9 AUGUST 2015:

I updated some dead links.

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/11/DeniseNieman.html

On Twitter: @PBClibrary @PBCgov @CBS12 @MichaelBCBS12 @SafeLibraries @Istook @Porn_Harms #library #CIPA

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