Paper Faces Rap Lyrics Query

A newspaper’s distribution of lyrics from a 2 Live Crew album that a Lee County judge declared obscene sparked a citizen’s complaint to the state attorney’s office, police said.

In a front-page editorial last month, Everett Landers, executive editor of the News-Press, offered free copies of the lyrics to anyone over 18 who stopped by the newspaper’s office and requested them.

A ruling Feb. 8 by Judge Isaac Anderson made it a misdemeanor to sell the Miami-based group’s recording “As Nasty As They Wanna Be” to adults and a felony to sell it to minors.

A federal judge in Ft. Lauderdale later ruled the recording obscene, and members of the rap group have been arrested on obscenity charges.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office said prosecutors would investigate to see whether state law had been violated by the News-Press.

Landers referred all questions to his lawyer, Steve Carta, who was unavailable for comment. A News-Press receptionist said the company had run out of copies of the lyrics and did not plan to print more.

In his editorial, Landers said that “unbending advocates of free speech often find themselves having to defend things they find offensive.” He said people, not the news media, should make a decision on what is obscene.

“We bow to that logic, in this case, not low enough to print the lyrics on our pages but to a middle ground”--of distributing the lyrics, the editorial said.