For the 20th consecutive year, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression celebrated Thomas Jefferson’s birthday on April 13. In doing so, they continued their streak of awarding their annual “Jefferson Muzzle” awards. These awards are handed out to “those responsible for some of the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression occurring in the previous year.”
2010’s biggest winners were President Obama and oil giant BP. They received this high honor for “their roles in restricting news media access to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.” The Jefferson Center stated that BP and other authorities, including Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard officials, repeatedly restricted journalists from public beaches or waters as the oil made its way into the Gulf.
Other “Jefferson Muzzle” winners were everyone’s favorite inappropriate touchy-feely agency, the TSA; a Mississippi judge who threw an attorney in jail for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; and the Virginia prison agency responsible for banning a “Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook.” Sounds like all award winners were deserving of their “Muzzle.”
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