See all posts about Yahoo and free speech.
Yahoo erased one of my webpages a couple of days ago. Why did Yahoo do it? Was my website obscene? Did it advocate violence or hatred? Quite the contrary. See for yourself: I have re-published the information on this new page. It seems that I stumbled onto some information that someone doesn't want revealed. The information is contained in an Amazon.com book review.
The webpage in question was written several years ago; the only recent information on the page was the book review and a short comment, both of which were located in a difficult-to-find spot that could be reached only after scrolling down a considerable distance. My page discussed the need to address evil when it is small in order to prevent greater evils like the Holocaust. Local school attorney Daniel Shinoff said that comparing local conflicts to pre-Nazi Germany was unacceptable and he accused me of being anti-Semitic for doing so. He even put his accusation into a sworn statement in an ongoing legal case.
But in a different legal case, he made a different argument. Voice of San Diego noted the following regarding a recent case involving Otay Water District:
A History of Death Threats, Scandal and Sewage-Tainted Water
by Rob Davis
Voice of San Diego
..."When the agency's attorney, Dan Shinoff, presented his case to the ethics board in March, he zeroed in on what he called Shilling's malicious critique of Gonzalez and Bonilla. Shinoff, who's paid $250 an hour by the district, appeared to be settling a campaign score. Talking to commissioners, he unfurled an inflated oratory filled with its own baseless accusations.
"Shinoff tried to connect Shilling to an anonymous website that attacked Gonzalez.
And yet Shinoff offered no proof it was Shilling's site. Shinoff said the criticism
was symptomatic of the country's devolving political discourse.
"Somebody's going to be a victim if we continue this in this society," Shinoff told the board, noting the shooting rampage that had left six dead and 13 wounded in Tucson, Ariz. a few weeks earlier.
He said an ethics board member shouldn't be allowed to make such attacks — not
with so much at stake. A rebuke was absolutely necessary, he said.
"I urge you with my heart and with my soul for you to do the right thing," he said.
"I come from a family of concentration camp survivors. And I can tell you from a very personal perspective, permitting this sort of dialogue only leads to tragedy..."
My page about the need to discuss evil in its mundane manifestations had existed for years. It includes a discussion of my shock when I learned that Daniel Shinoff was not descended from Holocaust survivors. I learned this in an April 27, 2003 story in the North County Times story that has been removed from the newspaper's archives. The story said that Mr. Shinoff's wife was the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
Then two-and-a-half days ago I was shocked to find the following book review by Mr. Shinoff's wife on Amazon.com:
Amazon Customer Review
July 29, 2007
By Michelle Shinoff
This review is from: The Outrage (Paperback)
I have been a student of the holocaust since graduating with a major in Judaic studies. I am also a relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany. Mischa's experience was an incredibly unique perspective from an unusual human being. Most Holocaust experiences do not parallel this unique perspective. The lessons and sense of family that Mr. Kopiec brings to this story are uplifting. I hope that this book can find its way into the homes of not only the Jewish community but also those of any human being that has no tolerance for discrimination, or the atrocities of genocide. Further, I believe that there are important lessons embodied in this story, that are a contribution to the Jewish people.
Mrs. Shinoff states that she is "a relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany." Could it be possible that even the NCT story exaggerated Mr. Shinoff's connection to the Holocaust? I added a short update and the text of the book review to my webpage. I tucked them both into a spot far down on the page. Here's the text I added:
Update Nov. 15, 2011
Okay. Now I'm really starting to wonder where the truth lies in this story. It looks like even the claim that Michelle Shinoff is the daughter of Holocaust survivors might not be true. Here's something she wrote herself. She describes herself as a "relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany..."
Exactly what benefit does Yahoo! get by helping Dan and Michelle Shinoff conceal information that they themselves have placed in the public record? I thought Yahoo would quit violating the constitution after I won against them in the California Court of Appeal last August. (Previously, Yahoo had interfered with my site at the request of Shinoff's law firm, Stutz Artiano Shioff & Holtz.) When a third-grade teacher wins against a big law firm, you know that the law firm must have been clearly in the wrong. So what is Yahoo thinking?
This issue is of particular significance since it relates directly to a case that is ongoing in San Diego Superior Court.
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