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The Huffington Post’s headline nails it, in the opinion of a lot of journos.
People were saying things accusing the AP of being lackeys for the White House, saying they get what they deserve, and that if the second amendment can be intruded upon, so can the first, etc. Basically it shows me that they have no idea what goes on with news gathering besides the fact that they disagree with political things that have been reported in which they believe they see a certain slant. I’m not saying they do or don’t legitimately see a slant, I’m just saying that’s why many people don’t trust the media. They think we’re part of the machine.
Let’s get something clear: It doesn’t matter if you like the press or not. In this country we are blessed to have so many different news outlets. It doesn’t matter which way you lean, there’s someone who will make you happy, and if you’re like me and you just want your news with no political bias, I’m proud to say there are actually reporters out there who still try to do that, too. Believe it or not, there are more of us who believe in telling an unslanted truth than those who don’t. Plus, having all the different media outlets means there’s competition for truth and detail.
Beyond the knee-jerk of the commenters on the AP story, here is why this should disturb every one of us to our very core.
In addition to reporting news, the media monitors and watchdogs the government, big corporations, your child’s school, the prisons, crooked businesses and local politicians… you get the gist of it. When people feel like something is wrong and they don’t think the police or the elected officials or whoever can help, who’s the first place they call? The media. As such, the powers that be must be accountable.
I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten from prisoners inside jails, from people who work inside companies they believe are crooked, from law enforcement “not authorized to speak on the investigation,” from wives or husbands who are terrified of their spouses, people who talk about school systems, etc. I even have people who call me and only give me nicknames. For instance “J” might be my guy who tells about a certain gang. “Allan” is a guy who keeps tabs on his local law enforcement. (Nicknames have been changed on general principle.) Sometimes I tell people not to give me their names so I can’t mess up and accidentally slip and say them.
In other words, a lot of the people we journalists deal with are giving us vital information that the public needs to know and they’re setting us on trails that could open up huge scandals, and they can only do that because they trust us not to out them. They can only do that because they hear stories of journalists who are willing to go to jail to protect a source.
I don’t think these AP reporters even had the chance to say, “Fine, put me in jail. I’m not telling.” I don’t know what they knew, but this wouldn’t be news if it wasn’t a blatant and egregious intrusion.
In some cases, the government will subpoena notes or call logs, etc., but I’ve never had that happen to me, so I don’t know what happens next. I just know it’s something we as an industry fight vehemently against because we need to maintain our integrity not just for our sake and our industry’s, but for yours, and J’s, and Allan’s, and for all the people like them. Also, frankly, for America. God forbid we become one of those countries where journalists and their sources can be arrested for reporting the truth.
A subpoena to the media must be “as narrowly drawn as possible” and “should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period,” according to the rules.
The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that “might impair the news gathering function” because the government recognizes that “freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news.”
News organizations normally are notified in advance that the government wants phone records and enter into negotiations over the desired information. In this case, however, the government, in its letter to the AP, cited an exemption to those rules that holds that prior notification can be waived if such notice, in the exemption’s wording, might “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”
The records obtained by the Justice Department included outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of several individual reporters, but also “general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.”
The government seized the records for more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press and its writers in April and May of last year. More than 100 journalists write in that office.
That means every phone call that came in or went out on any of those phone lines has been seen and potentially scrutinized by the government. No matter who it was from, who it was to, what it was about, or how secretive, anonymous, or confidential the call was supposed to be.
If that doesn’t make your blood run cold, it should.