by TChris

The 2004 Jefferson Muzzle awards, handed out to those who suppressed free speech during the past year, go to:

• CBS, for caving in to conservative pressure by deciding not to air a miniseries on Ronald Reagan that was, to the right wing, insufficiently reverential, and for refusing to run a Moveon.org ad during the Superbowl that was critical of the President;

• Baseball Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey, for canceling a showing of "Bull Durham" because its stars, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, oppose the war in Iraq;

• U.S. District Judge Miriam G. Cedarbaum, for barring reporters from jury selection in the Martha Stewart trial; and

• The Secret Service, for "investigating whether Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times could be charged with 'threatening the life' of President Bush for a cartoon depicting a man pointing a gun at Bush."

The awards are presented by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Among last year's winners: John Ashcroft.