I have previously discussed the curiosity of California’s Democratic leaders in Congress leading the fight for massive warrantless surveillance and attacks on privacy. California Senator Dianne Feinstein has long been viewed as hazard to civil liberties from her knowledge of the torture program to consistent support for the expansion of a security state system. Feinstein is now back in that ignoble role this week, fighting to limit the meaning of journalist to prevent bloggers and others from being able to claim protections from surveillance or compelled testimony. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has joined Feinstein in seeking to define most people out of protections for media.
The irony is the Feinstein wants to add the limiting language to a Media Shield Law that has already been riddled with exceptions and holes by the Obama Administration. Feinstein is again serving as the agent for those who want to expand government powers — in this case under the guise of a bill purportedly limiting such powers.
Feinstein came out last week by insisting that bloggers and Internet writers are not “real reporters” despite the fact that most Americans now get their news from such sites. She wants to limit the term to people who are “a salaried agent” of a media company like the New York Times or ABC News. Thus, students in media graduate programs and bloggers would not qualify. She is concerned that the law could be used by whistleblowers and others to expose unlawful conduct and then claim protections from government investigations or attacks.
She does not of course define what constitutes a salary. Would this include freelancers? I am paid by USA Today per column. Is that a salary? Is a media professor salaried as a journalist when he is paid by his school but writes in a university publication?
This blog is ranked as one of the top most visited legal blogs in the world. We have a larger audience than columns associated with various newspapers, including the Legal Times. We produce five to seven new stores each weekday. We run new stories over the weekend. We reach millions of readers each year. Most local newspapers have circulations of less than 15,000. Does it not matter how large your readership is but rather whether you receive money for the work? If so, we would have to add advertising to generate revenue to qualify while a small town newspaper with a fraction of our readership would automatically qualify. There are legitimate questions about what constitutes a journalist for constitutional or statutory protections, but Feinstein is adopting a criteria clearly designed to exclude most writers today on politics and government.
As we have discussed, this effort is part of an overall effort to strip whistleblowers and journalists of status as the Administration seeks to prosecute them. Assange is the best example. He is not a journalist but rather just an Assange.
Feinstein’s limit would be added to litany of exceptions and holes in the bill. For example, the law would allow Justice Department officials to delay notice for a period of 45 days and then ask for an extension of an additional 45 days. That would mean almost 100 days of surveillance of reporters like the controversial cases of the Obama Administration.
Feinstein would add to these limits by excluding writers for outfits like Wikileaks or even recognized reporters who are writing for blogs without direct compensation. It is part of the continued effort to distract the public with measures meant to look like reforms but actually reaffirm the power of the government like President Obama’s highly criticized “reforms” announced last Friday. Rather than limit the government, it would now become a formal exclusion of the vast majority of people covering the government from protections. This is particularly a concern with the rising criticism of mainstream media in yielding to demands of the White House in covering stories like the Snowden affair or actively mocking critics of the government. We are often informed of these programs or developments by the foreign media or the bloggers that Feinstein wants to strip of protections. It is particularly ironic coming from the Senator representing the state with the largest number of bloggers in the country. Instead of their interests, Feinstein is representing the interests of the ever-expanding system of security state offices and officials.
The government is most concerned not with traditional media, but the power of sites like Wikileaks or bloggers cover every aspect of their work. This is one reason why mainstream media is losing market share to the blogs. Readers are increasingly seeking alternatives to the source of their information. That certainly comes with a risk. There are many unreliable Internet sites and there is a great deal of bias on such sites. However, if one is to define a journalist, it would seem obvious that you would base the define on what they are actually doing as opposed to the arbitrary criteria of whether anyone is paying them directly for the work.
The problem is that the mainstream media views this emerging new media as a threat and many may privately welcome the exclusion of the competition. That would leave no one to advocate for bloggers on the Hill or in the main press. For that you would have to go to Internet and the very blogs that Feinstein is targeting in this legislation.
The most effective shield under this law will be for the government in stripping claims of protection and allowing long periods of surveillance of reporters. These exceptions and Feinstein’s effort (with Durbin) make the shield law a Trojan horse bill. To paraphrase an ancient adage for civil libertarians today, beware of Democratic leaders bearing gifts.
If Feinstein has her way, this will become the most visited il-legal blog in the world
BarkinDog is traveling to Den Haag as guide dog his half blind guy. He emailed from Koln, Germany to say that the Germans are riled up at America and Obama over the spying. He said that they are mad at CNN and other American television channels for playing down the spying and calling Snowden a traitor. The Europeans think that we need qualified journalists over here too. But not the Jeffrey Toobins owned by the Koch Brothers. BarkinDog is going to Firenze, Italy and then north to Amsterdam for a conference near the Red Light District. He will report in when he comes home to the dogpac.
In Russia the government determines who a journalist is. Hitler did so too. Cuba. North Korea. California is next. Then the U.S. of Aholes.
Can this blog run the Feinstein stories without the photo? It tears up the censor/ugly device on the Dogalogue Machine. She is an ugly old goat. Too old to be giving advise or consent from the Senate. 80 is old.
When she and Durbin without the turbin talk about licensed journalists it is similar to the walk they make around the metadata. They speak in terms of telephone calls and avoid the fact that the metadata system reads every email that you all write. The right of a person to reveal and tell the rest of the world about our government spying in our private lives should not be vested in some journalist. They can control journalists. Look at that schmuck on CNN who calls Snowden a Clown and a Traitor. His name is Jeffrey Toobin, not to be confused with turbin, and he says he is a lawyer. So where is his journalism degree or license? Who is he to defame Snowden? How can anyone get a fair trial with all the so called journalists calling him a traitor? We need to put qualifications on Congressmen and Senators. Like not too old. Not too rich. Not tied to the Koch Brothers.
Corporations are people, people are barnyard animals.
Old MIC Donald had a farm E I E I O
He hired Media Congress & Corps
To totally run the show.
On this farm he had DiFi
EEE AHH HELP OHH NOOO!!!!
p.s.
While Diane is busying herself with defining “journalist” and “press” for “free speech” purposes…
… She might want to also define “lying under Oath”.
Haves VS Have nots
Diane sets the stage
A Two Tiered system
There are two sets of laws applied in this Nation:
One set is reserved to reward the political Elite…
… The other set is used by the political Elite against Just-us!
You CAN be a Pentagon Elite and lie under Oath and that’s O.K. with Diane.
MM,
You’ll catch no argument from me that quality journalism is hard to find these days.
Ross,
Totally agree. I will also add that violations should be meet with equal punishments. Promotions to cabinet positions is NOT about any form of reprimand/punishment meted out. IMO. It only seems fair and equal… I mean, if I were to con someone into spying on them, what would be my punishment?
Gene,
The next time you put your journalist hat on maybe you can do a report on Americana? 🙂
Gnite.
Yellow Journalism:
“You supply the pictures, and I’ll supply the war.” — William Randolph Hearst to one of his reporters in Havana Cuba shortly before the U.S.S. Maine went down.
From Crucible of Empire:
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html
Given the mainstream corporate media feeding frenzy stoking Deputy Dubya Bush’s dual debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’d say that yellow journalism pretty much sets the limbo standard (“How Low Can You Go”) for the sort of journalism Senator Feinstein thoroughly approves.
**Otteray Scribe 1, August 14, 2013 at 1:44 am
Risk factors? This: **
OS,
We know as fact in the 50′, 60’s & *80’s the CDC , Red Cross, Reagan, etc.,
where putting Cancer viruses/AIDS into the vaccines/blood products.
Was HPV one of those viruses?
Regardless, there is no long any trust fact with many of us.
**Weakened Immune System: A person with a weakened immune system or an autoimmune disease has an increased risk of cervical cancer. **
OS, They can get the above from taking vaccines.
It’s easy for me to make mistake in any writings, but the files I’ve gathered I do not believe are mistaken.
It’s only reasonable to let peer reviewed science help us be objective on whatever the subject.
Whether it’s global warming or vaccines let us 1st be honest about who are the bought & paid off scientist by billionaires & what was their agenda regarding their research.
I hope you’ll agree we are in trouble in regards to research funding coming to scientist from billionaires/Corps/Foundations with preconceived agendas.
We’ll have to go back & 1st find out what info we can once again trust.
Risk factors? This:
Cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus, otherwise known as HPV. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, although not all types of HPV will cause cervical cancer. Some types of HPV cause genital warts; other types of the virus are asymptomatic.
The danger is in the fact that a woman can have HPV for years and never know it. The virus stays dormant in the body and can cause cervical cancer years later. This is why it is important for a woman to have a routine Pap smear to detect the early stages of cervical cancer and prevent the spread of the disease.
Cervical Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
In addition to the main cause of cervical cancer, an HPV infection, there are several other risk factors that contribute to the disease:
Smoking: Women who are infected with HPV and smoke cigarettes have a higher risk of cervical cancer.
Weakened Immune System: A person with a weakened immune system or an autoimmune disease has an increased risk of cervical cancer.
Sexual Partners: Women who have had multiple sexual partners have a higher risk of cervical cancer.
Birth Control Pills: Women who use birth control pills for five years or longer have a slightly higher risk of developing cervical cancer with an HPV infection. This risk will automatically decrease when a woman goes off of birth control pills.
Having Several Children: A woman that has had five or more children has a slightly higher risk of cervical cancer if she has an HPV infection.
DES: DES was a drug given to pregnant women between 1940 and 1971. It can increase the risk of cervical cancer in daughters whose mothers were exposed to the drug during pregnancy.
This is much better than getting a shot, right:
http://static.wikidoc.org/b/b5/Endometrial_adenocarcinoma_gross.jpg
As a “DES bany” we told many years ago that the next generation from DES babies is also at risk..
**About eight thousand women a year [who have not had the vaccine] die of uterine cancer. **
OS, instead of thinking vaccines as the answer maybe you should be asking yourself “What Caused the Cancers in the 1st place?”
**Otteray Scribe 1, August 14, 2013 at 1:08 am
Gardaisil is an anti-cancer vaccine**
Well OS, we’ll just mark you down as one that trust those lying ahole vaccine makers & their bought/paid govt puppets that pimp for them & since you & all your grand babies are vaccinated you have nothing to fear from those of us that disagree.
It’s an easy position to hold OS, if you let it be.
Here’s the Yglesias post on how people get their news primarily from teevee:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/08/13/television_is_america_s_most_popular_source_of_news.html?wpisrc=flyouts
Ozzie,
The proof is in the eating of the pudding.
As for special protection of journalists? Let’s start by looking at what the 1st Amendment actually says in relevant part:
“Congress shall make no law [. . .] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”.
Yet there are exceptions to free speech long recognized in jurisprudence as both reasonable restraints and non-intrusive upon the inherent right such as defamation, threats, incitement, etc. But look at what the Constitution is specifically protecting aside from free speech: “the press” aka journalism as defined above. The Founders were protecting both free speech and the press as a public form of mass communication of information about events of public interest. I don’t begrudge Alex Jones the right to say what he says or use the medium. I begrudge that his standards and content are usually crap of the highest order. But the Internet and the Web are a great equalizer. They are both press and distributor that enable anyone with a connection to act as a journalist. Anyone can “spread the news” now. That makes knowing what makes good journalism and what makes yellow journalism so critical.
It’s up to the reader to know how to differentiate between journalism and pablum.
Gardaisil is an anti-cancer vaccine. About eight thousand women a year [who have not had the vaccine] die of uterine cancer.
As of December 31, 2008, there were 32 U.S. reports of deaths among females who received the vaccine. There was no common pattern to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine.
Gene, I’ve seen some good stuff you’ve put out & I also see you like to argue, fine so do I when I have the energy, right now I’m running low again.
I’m topped out on issues I’m concerned with, but I viewed this odd one below last night.
I could just walk away from it yet I saved the link.
I’m not sure what to think of it yet. It’s gross, it’s some freaky stuff & full of religion.
It is an odd piece but the gal is American & some are preaching this stuff among us all.
And I’m not saying I’ll have any further comments on this subject later.
http://tomohalloran.com/2013/06/10/watch-must-see-for-all-americans-ann-barnhardt-islamic-sexuality-a-survey-of-evil/