Partisanship Over Spying On Journalists Is Stupid: Spying On Journalists Is Bad, Period
from the stupid-partisans dept
I've said many times before that I'm not a member of any political party, nor a fan of partisanship in general, and that means most political parties are a ridiculous concept to me, because they're more focused on "beating the other guy" than doing what's right. This often becomes quite clear when power shifts from one party to the other, and people who used to complain about too much power in the executive suddenly want more power for "their guy" or vice versa. The latest example of this on display can be seen in the partisan response to the DOJ spying on AP reporters.On the Republican side, politicians are reasonably up in arms about this, but they seem to ignore that when "their guy" was in the Oval Office, they were very much in favor of having the DOJ sift through reporters' emails. On the Democratic side, you have groups like Media Matters, ridiculously destroying its own credibility by coming out with talking points about how the DOJ did the right thing in spying on reporters. Basically, it's all about "defend your guy / attack the other guy" no matter what the situation is. This obviously isn't true across the board -- there certainly have been some party members "crossing lines" to express horror at this kind of surveillance.
Frankly, this kind of partisanship is part of why so few people trust Congress. It seems like a pretty clear case of what's good and right, and spying on journalists' communications is generally considered not right. A principled stance would be to oppose that, no matter which party is in power. When positions are staked out clearly based on partisanship, the public loses whatever little trust it has that the government has its best interests in mind.
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Filed Under: journalism, partisanship, politics, spying, surveillance, wiretaps
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Would you go far as "Spying Is Bad, Period"?
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However
When a journalists encourages or helps with theft of documents or materials, are the being a journalist or being a thief? Are they participating in a whistle blowing operation or a conspiracy to steal?
Journalists do get some special protections under the law, but they don't get a free pass.
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Re: However
So what you are saying is that it should be ok for the government to spy on anyone that is morally imperfect? Morality is, by definition, subjective. Your standard makes everyone a surveillance target.
This is not a case of "don't spy on the reporters that are suspected of criminal activity", this is a case of spying on them simply because they are journalists.
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I said that journalists are human like the rest of us, and shouldn't get a pass because they happen to have the magic press card. It the same thing as the police investigating other police for committing crimes, having the uniform doesn't mean that the person isn't capable of crime.
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Re: However
News organizations are referred to as "the Fourth Estate", which is from the Edmund Burke quote that there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, "in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all."
The role of the Fourth Estate is to keep the other three "estates" or "branches" of our government--the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature--honest. Journalists cannot keep the government honest if people are afraid to report wrongdoing on the part of the government to the Fourth Estate, which is exactly what this particular bit of spying was meant to do--frighten whistleblowers.
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UpBoat please. My E-Penis and Ego needs stroking
Media NOW..... boo fucking Hoo they are spying on us
Welcome to our world, media.
Maybe if you had done your job, being our watchmen of government. Nevermind, I am sure the White House's Corespondent's dinner was nice, and you will get that access to politicians you lust after.
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Step 1: Control the media
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Political Parties, partisan politics and we
Partisan politics are the polarisation of issues not the solution.
When we can see everything that the government does (every door opened, every document available, every meeting entered and every communication revealed) then and only then would we be able to trust them with spying on us. We would see exactly what is going on.
This will never happen as there are "too many secrets". Movie reference anyone?
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DOJ is Partisan
Thus, outrage of a DOJ that has the power to tap my phone without a warrant, tap 1st Amendment Protected reports, monitor this post & put me in jail for their reasons MUST go straight to the President's desk (R or D) for hiring the people who carry out such activities.
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Follow the "shoot all the lawyers" philosophy
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Re: Follow the "shoot all the lawyers" philosophy
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Sounds good :-)
I understand this is taken a bit out of context, but it came out so very nicely I couldn't resist... because I personally trust very strongly that the government has only its best interests in mind :-D
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listening to phones, etc.
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