CVS facing growing censorship protest – interview

Sparky, 18.05.2007 15:55

Jeff White says he knew it was political as soon as The Shepherd Express disappeared from the racks in his local pharmacy. As journalist of 20 years and with a passionate commitment to freedom of speech, he decided to take a very singular stand...

Over the last five weeks, the East-sider has become a familiar figure at the junction of Farwell and Brady with his protest sign - and a growing thorn in the side of CVS. The manager even had him arrested, but a $160 ticket has only led White to re-double his efforts.

Reportedly, the decision to ban the Shepherd from all CVS stores followed a complaint from a pro-war customer in Wauwatosa. To date, however, the Rhode Island company has failed to offer any official explanation.

Meanwhile on the streets, other local supporters have joined White for daily protests outside the store, currently between 3pm and 5pm.

And following coverage in this week’s Shepherd Express, more and more passers-by have been honking their support – see feature at  http://www.shepherd-express.com/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=2007-05-17&-token.story=177197.113121


INTERVIEW with JEFF WHITE

Indymedia – What exactly is behind this protest?

JW - First of all, I’m a loyal reader of the Shepherd, but I’m also a journalist and I understand the importance of the local media, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

When I saw that the paper wasn’t there in the store, I knew it had to have something to do with politics, I just knew it. I’m a liberal, but I think if they had kicked out a conservative paper I may not be the one holding the sign right now, but I would agree with whoever was out here and I might join them because I don’t believe that someone else should decide what we can all have access to and read.

These are free papers and at the very minimum CVS is asking the Shepherd to pay to be in these locations and that’s just not right either. They make their money from advertising and I know from having worked at papers that size how thin the margins are and they need all the help they can get. And for a major company like this to decide not to allow them in because one man objects is absurd. Where are we going to when people cannot have open minds and be willing to listen to the other side?

The other thing would be people driving who say ‘Who Cares?’ – well you should care about something like this, this is basic, this is freedom of the press, this is the first amendment… this is what’s important, not American Idol, … these are your rights, this is democracy, this is what it’s all about.

IM - And CVS have clearly been taken by surprise to have people outside with signs?

JW - Oh, I think so. My initial reaction when I found it wasn’t here, I thought I knew why, so I asked the manager and he told me ‘The Shepherd is not authorized to be here’ and I said ‘well what does that mean?’ and wouldn’t go beyond that so, to me, that’s a non-response response and if you look at the things that he said [in the Shepherd article], they don’t make sense, they don’t sound real, they don’t sound truthful. So I don’t think they understood what they did. The East Side has to be pretty liberal and the Shepherd is a pretty liberal paper, left leaning. They may not be having problems in Wauwatosa where I believe the whole thing originated, but they certainly should have anticipated that their customers down here on the East Side were going to number one: miss the paper not being there, and number two: have something to say about it not being there. It’s my understanding they used to distribute about 200 copies at this one particular location. That’s a lot of people now wondering why it’s not there and having to go someplace else to get it.

IM - This began as a one person protest. In recent days there have been three of you… How did that come about?

JW - I was out here, Margaret saw me, came to me and said ‘you need more people out here’. And my response has been the whole time to hold up my sign, listen to my music and if people ask me what’s going on tell them to the best of my knowledge. And if they say, ‘Well what should I do about it?’, I don’t want to organize that kind of thing. I didn’t want my response to be to go to the corporate board, I didn’t want my response to be to tell people not to shop at CVS, when I found out that Shepherd wasn’t here any more I said “well I shop here every day and I’m a loyal customer and I’m a loyal reader of the Shepherd and now I cannot be both” – that was my response. And my response immediately as a reporter and a journalist was I knew I wanted people to know what happened and for them to decide what they wanted to do. So, I’ve had people saying, ‘You should have a petition, you’re not doing any good if you don’t have a petition’, that’s not what I choose to do. I’ve had people say, ‘I’m going to email the corporate offices’ and that’s fine, but that’s not what I chose to do, my choice was exactly this. Their choice is whatever they want to do. Some of them have gone in and asked the manager why it’s not here, whatever they want to do is fine. Well, Margaret said you need more people here, she said maybe if you get more people here it’ll go faster – and I do believe she’s right. But again my choice wasn’t to recruit people, so she’s strictly a volunteer and she’s recruited another volunteer and that’s what her choice has been. I’m damn glad to have her here because she’s a veteran of stuff like this. And you can see people love her. Everyone wants to know what she’s doing here and she can explain these things better than I can. Do I anticipate more people? I don’t know. The Shepherd seems to think that the reaction of CVS will incur other Milwaukeeans to rise up and say ‘How dare you?’. We’ll see… I hope, that would be nice. I’m here until something satisfactory happens as a result of this. And obviously the Shepherd being back would be a satisfactory result.

There are much bigger issues [than this]… but in these times, when we’re trying to take back our democracy in this country it’s important that we fight every single battle that’s out there to be fought and this one was perfect for me because of my background. I’m a freelance writer, it’s a good time of year to be out.

The other thing is, the first time [the manager] called the police on me they were very friendly and very understanding and treated with me with respect. But my response was if CVS are going to call the police on me, they have no idea what they did because I’m now going to double the time that I’m out here. So when they had me arrested, I also doubled my time again, so I have a limited amount of time, but I if they want to push me to the max, I’m willing to go there.

Blog Commentary on Shepherd Express / CVS 30.05.2007 - 19:34 For blog commentary on the Shepherd Express/CVS conflict from a new person in Milwaukee, see: www.mattcavin.blogspot.com Matt Cavin> Homepage:: http://www.mattcavin.blogspot.com Censorship 06.07.2007 - 12:38 Censorship? Freedom of speech does not imply a drugstore has to carry your favorite rag. Just because a business chooses to not carry the Shepard Express this is in no way a case of censorship. Is the S.E. still being published? Excersing property rights-yes,freedom of speech is a form of property rights-is hardly government sponsored censorship. M. Rothbard> buy tavor 14.08.2007 - 19:37 nice news thanks!Anafranil buy tavor> e-mail:: idfo@dssewt.net Homepage:: http://flexeril xenical 14.08.2007 - 20:23 nice news thanks!Ximovan xenical> e-mail:: posser@isof.net Homepage:: http://diflucan regenon 15.08.2007 - 12:29 buy evra regenon> e-mail:: idsfo@dssewt.net Homepage:: http://denavir