The Wardman Wire

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Sam Norton has had a reply to his latest correspondence from Mr Mark Brewer, which I reproduce below:
From: Mark Brewer
To: Sam Norton
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:56 PM
Subject: RE: your cease and desist request to me
Sir
Neither English nor American law permits you to engage in what you term “fair comment” with respect to a private [...]

I was planning to write this evening about Cease and Desist notices, what they are used for and my opinions about how to assess them and respond. Instead, I have something far more interesting for you; one of J Mark Brewer’s Cease and Desist notices itself.

Sam Norton runs the blog “Elizaphanian”. He is one of the Bloggers in receipt of “Cease and Desist” notices from J Mark Brewer, who runs the Saint Stephen the Great organisation.

On July 26th, Sam noted that he had been sent a “Cease and Desist” notice by Mark Brewer:

For the record, I’ve been ’served’ a cease and desist as well…

Now he has decided to publish the entire correspondence.

In my opinion Dave Walker’s posts have been a careful reporting of the developing situation at SPCK, where he has been restrained and taken care to avoid stepping over the line of objectivity.

Having followed the story for over a year, my opinion is that his reporting on Cartoon Church has been temperate and thoughtful; I have observed him repeatedly advise commentors to have cool heads, and I have regularly seen comments edited or removed when he thought they went too close to the line of controversy.

In order to help place the true facts - in my opinion - of this case where they can be sensibly debated, I am republishing some posts that were the subject of the complaint by Mark Brewer.

Perhaps you would care to reach your own opinions on the matter. You need to review the full set of 75 posts to reach an overall decision; I am sure that someone will give you that opportunity in due course.

“Thank goodness that we have this one, last bastion of free speech – the Internet. The internet, in particular, is the only truly free “press” we still have.”

(Mark Brewer Campaign Site 2000)

This morning’s cartoon is this afternoon.

(Sorry - life has been slightly hectic and I’m trying to get back to normal as well).

A shortish one today.

Words of J Mark Brewer

‘Like other business people, lawyers exist in a competitive world. They must be willing to withstand the scrutiny of those whom they serve and those whom they seek to serve.’

Ay-men !

(Brewer and Pritchard Previous Website) (H/T)

This article is a summary of articles, news items, and letters that have appeared in the Church Times over the last two and a half years. Apart from Cartoon Church, the Church Times is the only outlet that has really covered the story.

I’m preparing a precis of these articles, but it is taking some time.

My aim is to let you dive into the backstory of the current SPCK / Dave Walker / Mark Brewer affair as painlessly as possible. To get to grips with it you probably need to skim them once (sorry!).

This list is cross-posted from the Church Times blog. It is not an exhaustive list - some ‘in brief’ items are omitted to keep the list manageable.