Click above for the first couple paragraphs. For the rest, you'll have to pay a dollar at the Anthracite News Stand. Or Leo Matus.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The Big Vopper in The Wall Street Journal
Saturday's Wall Street Journal carried an op-ed piece that referred to Bartinicki v. Vopper, the Supreme Court case -- possibly the most memorable and important First Amendment case to come out of NEPA -- involving former WILK talk-show host Fred Williams, a.k.a. Fred Vopper. In brief, Williams played on the air a tape of a Wyoming Valley West teacher's union negotiator talking on his cell phone about blowing off the front porches of board members. Someone had illegally taped the call on his police scanner and given it to Williams. The negotiator sued Williams, alleging violation of wiretap laws. The Court ultimately held that the First Amendment reigns supreme.
Click above for the first couple paragraphs. For the rest, you'll have to pay a dollar at the Anthracite News Stand. Or Leo Matus.
Read a summary of the case from Cornell Law School
Click above for the first couple paragraphs. For the rest, you'll have to pay a dollar at the Anthracite News Stand. Or Leo Matus.
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2 comments:
Williams played on the air a tape of a Wyoming Valley West teacher's union negotiator talking on his cell phone ... Someone had illegally taped the call on his police scanner and given it to Williams.
Y'know, I wondered about this since Day One. The news stories had the guy parked out in front of the WVW's house with a scanner, taping. You don't park in front of a house to listen in to a cell phone; you can do that anywhere. You stay close to the home to listen in to a cordless phone.
For the longest time, cordless phones were not given the protection of law (wiretapping) as were cells. Cell phones were considered part of the telephone system, as they fed right into it. Cordless phone base stations were merely broadcasting far and wide (so to speak) and not at all given the protection that cells had.
The law changed, at least in some states if not nationwide, but I wonder if the snooper actually was outside the law, given the near-certainty that he was listening to a cordless on his 46-49mhz scanner.
They kept saying "cell," and I kept thinking "cordless."
Vopper still alive? I hope he's dead and rotting in hell.
He was nothing but a carpetbagging, scumbag, and a cocksucker.The media makes that bum out to be some kind of First Amendment god. He was a scourge on the land. Good riddance he's gone.
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