Why Reno’s Free Speech Champions Don’t Have Your Back

Read Part I and Part II.

The public response to Ryan Jerz’s situation, despite it being well known and well documented in the Reno area, was little to none. Some posted comments of support on his blog at the time. But nobody – journalist, blogger or any number of free-speech activists – publicly came to Jerz’s aid. (The silent champion of this whole ordeal is Kevin Darby, who provided Jerz with pro-bono legal defense.)

One person actually came out in defense of Patraw. Jake Highton, a professor of journalism at the University of Nevada*, called the University’s claims against Patraw an abomination both in his Sparks Tribune column and on his blog. When I wrote to Highton and explained to him what Patraw was doing to Jerz, this is what he wrote back:

“As for an attack on a blog, I as a First Amendment absolutist find that outrageous. Nevertheless, I think you know me well by now. I am a rebel. I take the anti-establishment side in nearly every case.”

In other words, Patraw could be as wrong as she in fact was, she could manipulate the legal system to bully Jerz into deleting constitutionally protected speech on his site but Highton still would have sided with her simply because she was suing the University.

In a black-and-white, David-versus-Goliath context, Jerz would have garnered support. Yet this situation was not easily digested in terms of “right” and “wrong” – likely because the University is perceived as corrupt, with some evidence to back that point up – despite Patraw’s behaviors clearly gleaned as bullying and bizarre by most who knew of Jerz’s situation.

*Jake Highton is my former advisor as I was getting my degree in print journalism at UNR between 1990 and 1995. I still consider Jake a good friend and mentor.

Read Part IV, the conclusion, tomorrow.