FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration yesterday blocked state employees' access to many Web logs -- a day after a prominent political "blogger" was critical of the governor in a New York Times story.
The ban sent the political sector of the cyber world into a tizzy, attracting attention from national blogs, some of which were added throughout the day to the list of Internet sites state workers couldn't access.
Finance and Administration Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said that, as part of a continuing Web-monitoring process, the state is restricting employees' access to sites that contain computer viruses as well as those devoted to entertainment, movies, auctions, classified ads, jokes, comics, message boards and, yes, blogs.
The state already banned workers from viewing pornography, shopping, online gambling and gaming sites.
"We want to make sure we are doing what's best for the taxpayers," she said.
Officials conducted a study two weeks ago to determine commonly visited sites that are unrelated to state government business, Midkiff said, although she wasn't able to provide a copy of that report.
The state submitted it to Webwasher, a Seattle-based Internet security company that has a contract with the state to restrict Web access. It begin blocking the newest batch of off-limits sites, including blogs, Tuesday night and yesterday morning, Midkiff said.
The timing had nothing to do with Tuesday's front-page New York Times story about Fletcher's political troubles that quoted Bluegrassreport.org publisher Mark Nickolas, Midkiff said.
Robbie Rudolph, Fletcher's 2007 running mate and executive Cabinet secretary, said Fletcher wasn't upset by the Times piece, which Rudolph called "just a rehash." The story reported on the state hiring investigation that has led to Fletcher's indictment on counts of political discrimination, official misconduct and conspiracy.
In that story, Nickolas, whose blog is one of the most-read Kentucky political sites, criticized Fletcher's administration for trying to "play by their own rules even if it's against the law."
Nickolas is the former campaign manager for Ben Chandler, Fletcher's Democratic opponent in the 2003 governor's race.
In an interview yesterday, Nickolas said he was still suspicious of the timing. Regardless, it reflects poorly on Fletcher he said.
"All this is going to do is draw more attention to it," he said. "It is an example of the low political IQ of the administration, that they think they can censor political speech to keep people in line."
Speech isn't limited because employees are free to post their thoughts on Bluegrassreport.org or other blogs on their own time, Midkiff said.
All blogs -- conservative, liberal or non-political -- will be blocked as the state's Commonwealth Office of Technology becomes aware of them, she said.
"New sites come on line everyday. The technology is constantly changing," Midkiff said.
Some blogs found themselves added rather quickly to the list yesterday.
After a half-dozen state employees notified Nickolas yesterday morning that they couldn't view his site, Bluegrassreport.org posted a piece about the ban.
National blogs immediately latched onto the issue.
TPMMuckraker.com posted several items on its site and contacted the governor's office to find out about the action. Less than an hour after blogger-reporter Paul Kiel contacted the administration, state employees no longer could access Kiel's site, he said.
On a different part of the political spectrum, the Bluegrass Institute -- a free-market advocacy group in Bowling Green -- also landed on the banned list.
Jim Waters, spokesman for the institute, said state workers should be exposed to any forums that debate public policies and ideas. After all, that's the beauty of the Internet, he added.
"I'd rather have them have access to too much than limiting them to good information," he said.
However, conservative blogger David Adams of the Kentucky Progress site called the issue "a huge non-story," even though his site is among the growing list of online no-nos for state workers. He said public employees should "tone down" their blog participation during business hours anyway.
Charles Wells, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, said workers still should be allowed to access such sites at lunch or after hours.
"This is the ultimate in censorship," Wells said. "I think the priority for the administration should be blocking pornographic sites. I don't see a problem in state employees reading someone's political views."
The National Coalition Against Censorship weighed in late yesterday with a statement saying it "condemns these actions and requests that the sites be cleared for access by state employees."
In an interview, Kiel, of the national TPMMuckraker site, said that in his reporting on other state capitals around the country, he hadn't seen any similar actions.
