Yesterday afternoon, Creative Loafing’s Chief Marketing Officer, Henry Scott, used DM to fire the first verbal shot across Decatur’s bow, in what is already being called “The Great Newspaper Box War” by those with nothing else to do.

The City of Decatur has violated the First Amendment by removing news boxes from public rights of way before offering an alternative (the proposed group boxes). It amazes me, a long time journalist, that any city government could be as oblivious (or is it hostile?) to the rights of its citizens to have access to newspapers.

But that was just a quick taste of the wrath to come.

Then came the storm in the form of a slobbering tirade of sanity by the most unhinged and reasonable of CL staff members, Thomas “Crazy-Eyes” Wheatley.

In a blog post from late yesterday, Wheatley details how CL just became aware of the missing newspaper boxes from Decatur’s streets (read Decatur Metro, yo!), and how the city apparently sent notices of the new newspaper box ordinance – in both electronic and paper form – to old CL addresses.

Henry Scott is still pissed.

While the city has every right to regulate the placement of newsracks, Scott says, it hasn’t provided an alternative to distribute publications in the interim [between old boxes being picked up and new ones being installed]. By doing so, the city has caused the paper economic damage, violated our constitutional rights, and deprived Decatur’s residents and visitors of a valuable resource that will tell them their horoscope.

Serious claims, in a light-hearted post.  CL wants its boxes back working street-corners by Monday.  No word yet on how Decatur will respond.

Let’s hope these two bashions of liberal thought can soon reconcile and return to congratulating each other on their respective progressiveness.