Our country was founded on the freedom of speech but Facebook, New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio and others seem to think that freedom goes too far.
It was reported on Jan. 20 in The Day that Finizio went onto Facebook criticizing a photo on the Whale Tales Facebookpage that depicted him as Adolf Hitler.
Unfortunately, the newspaper did not print the photograph, a disservice to readers who could have seen the photo firsthand which has a caption that states “Adolf Fibnizio”.
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I did manage to get a copy of the photo from those administering the Whale Tales page.
While I don’t agree with the comparison since Hitler was responsible for the death of 5.5 million people, I believe that people have a right to express their opinions.
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The article states that city resident Kathleen Mitchell, who administers the page, said she received a message about inappropriate content from Facebook and claims the photo was up 30 minutes before she removed it.
Why would Facebook care so much about this photo?
Mitchell is quoted in the paper as saying that “I understand the intent of it. It compared Daryl’s oratory skills and skill at manipulating an audience (to Hitler’s), he’s a dynamic speaker.”
While in the comment section on The Day website some questioned the true intent of the photo, I believe we will never know unless the author comes out and makes a statement.
The Day states that while Mitchell denied making the post, she said that the only people who can post items on the page are a limited number of city employees and board members who are anonymous writers for Whale Tales.
On Sunday at 2:20 p.m., Whale Tales posted: “Whale Tale is not intended to be socially offensive, but sometimes it happens anyway. And we do enjoy roasting the Mayor because he deserves it, but not at the expense of our followers. We also take very seriously the very wrong interpretation by some of our FB friends and take exception to their erroneous postings and comments. The picture that was posted earlier today, because of their very wrong interpretations, has been removed. Should you still be offended in any way, please unfriend Whale Tale.”
One would think the removal of the photo and that statement would satisfy Finizio, but it did not.
The Day reported that Finizio acknowledged the anonymous comments made by some on Whale Tales and The Day claiming that while he doesn’t pay attention to them, he went to Facebook to address postings that he claimed “cross the line”.
He further stated, “today something came to my attention that should shock the conscience of every New Londoner,” adding that “this kind of venomous political discourse poisons our community. Comparisons to Nazi-ism are clearly outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior.”
He called on Whale Tale to disband their Facebook group. I bet he would tell The Day to shut down their newspaper if it allowed anonymous posters to post items that he believes “cross the line”. Or perhaps he would like The Day to require all commenter’s to use their full name, a practice required for letters to the editor but not for comments to articles. It seems the newspaper has different standards based on the format of the feedback.
In Finizio’s Facebook statement, according to The Day, Finizio goes on to tell politicians who received support from the page to denounce the posting or they are “condoning this type of behavior”.
“That these individuals would (choose) MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) weekend to engage in hate speech is clearly unacceptable. My vision for New London is a City that values all our residents as equals and where political disagreements, passionate though they may be, can be handled with professionalism and respect. Shame on these people! You do not represent New London, and at long last, even for the reptilian likes of you, you have gone too far.”
In response to Finizio’s remarks, the Whale Tales post states “over 24 hours after re-posting the photo that offended him so much on his own Facebook page, accusing many of his political enemies, with absolutely no proof, of collusion in the original post which appeared on WT, smearing people innocent of wrong doing, including the Republican Town Committee, after going to The Day which resulted in an article that is now Number 2 in the Most Discussed Stories, and by his actions, creating even more division in the community, Mayor Finizio has milked the unfortunate original posting (which appeared here for all of 30 minutes) for all it was worth, and after a number of requests, has finally taken down his post. When will you get to the many promises you made to the citizens of this fine city?”
A later post on Whale Tales stated “it is ridiculous and beyond belief that the mayor of this city would take a photo that he says he finds offensive and turn it into a major media event when our community is facing one crisis after another.”
In the end, it is ironic that a man denounces a comparison made between him and a dictator yet tells the Whale Tale to disband, indirectly insults those who make anonymous comments online, and defines an attack on him as “hate speech”.
I’m sure Ron Burgundy would tell the mayor to “stay classy”.
