Bastards!

The Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London stands as one of the worst in recent years, handing local governments carte blanche to seize private property in the name of economic development.

Now, four years after that decision gave Susette Kelo's land to private developers for a project including a hotel and offices intended to enhance Pfizer Inc.'s nearby corporate facility, the pharmaceutical giant has announced it will close its research and development headquarters in New London, Connecticut.

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As far as I can tell, establishment media coverage of Pfizer's latest move and its real-world relevance to the Kelo ruling has thus far been non-existent. A Google News search on "Pfizer Kelo" (not in quotes) at 11:00 a.m. came back with a dozen items, none from major establishment media outlets. A search on "Pfizer eminent domain" (again not in quotes) came back with 13, adding only the Hartford Courant report noted above. The Associated Press's coverage of the Pfizer-Wyeth facilities consolidations only says that "Groton, Conn. .... will add 1,500 workers from a nearby New London facility being closed."

The idea that news consumers outside of Connecticut don't have an interest in learning what has really happened at the site involved in the Supreme Court's odious Kelo ruling is patently absurd. Perhaps this four-year blackout has occurred because our journalistic gatekeepers would prefer that we not see a concrete demonstration of what can happen when a government gives in to its authoritarian impulses, and the courts fail in their duty to rein it in.

h/t to WSJ.com and NewsBusters.com