By Hosam Haggag, Santa Clara resident, community activist & thought leader
There is an Attack on Our Freedom of Speech in Santa Clara and WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.
By now, you’ve probably heard of the lawsuit that Miles Barber from the Santa Clara Weekly has filed against Robert Haugh’s new website Santa Clara News Online. I had posted about Miles having registered the same name “Santa Clara News Online” and just as I had thought, he is using that as one of the reasons he’s suing Robert.
Let’s all take a stand and support Haugh against this frivolous lawsuit. Pitch in whatever little you can – every amount counts.
So let’s get this straight:
1) Haugh used to work for the Santa Clara Weekly a long time ago. He left back then.
2) The Santa Clara Weekly takes sides in the 2016 election, and is completely biased. They publish fake news allegations against Santa Clara City Council candidates Debi Davis, Tino Silva, Kathy Watanabe and Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gilmore. The SC Weekly “reporter” Carolyn Schuck pens some articles that are used on the BluePac.org website attacking these candidates. BluePac is a shadowy Political Action Committee behind the vicious attacks on candidates Davis, Silva and Watanabe last year.
3) Haugh launches a new news website.
4) Weekly is ousted as a voice unfavorable to Santa Claran’s best interests in the sphere of public opinion.
5) Barber figures out that Haugh didn’t yet register his business name, even though he already has the website, domain name, and is already operating with that name.
6) Barber registers the name as ammo to help his lawsuit.
7) Barber sues Haugh…
This is the textbook definition of:
A) Fear of competition
B) Infringing on constitutional freedom of speech
C) Hindering the freedom of press
D) Frivolous lawsuit
And just this morning… Mr Barber is checking out my LinkedIn profile… what is he doing? Planning to sue me next? Good grief. It wouldn’t be the first time I dealt with a wack lawsuit…
It is CRITICAL that we all support the freedom of press. Even if you don’t know Haugh, the principle is extremely important. If Barber wins this frivolous lawsuit (not by merit, but simply because Haugh couldn’t afford to defend himself), then Barber will feel empowered to go after others who speak truth to power.
Hosam Haggag, Santa Clara resident, community activist & thought leader
Also, in full disclaimer, Santa Clara News Online has been re-sharing my video series every Thursday. I benefit nothing from this (other than a bigger audience) – these are my own personal video series with no input or direction from Robert. He asked if he could re-share them and as with anything on social media I told him to have at it. I have no problem with anybody and everybody sharing my videos – you never need to ask permission to share my videos, but I guess he felt the need to ask, and that’s cool and all.
