Conspiracy to commit journalism | Pressthink

Conversations at Stanley Park

Investigative journalism and the secret state are natural enemies. Even with an enlightened government and relatively untroubled times, their relationship will be uneasy at best.

Today, they’re in a state of undeclared war. Surveillance states and most of their fellow travellers are in too deep to pull back voluntarily. Some will be uneasy about how far things have gone but changing one’s mind is never a comfortable business, particularly if it has to be done in public.

Those opposed to overly intrusive and secret surveillance need to figure out the best ways to increase that uneasiness and offer palatable means for players to defect. The playing field needs to once again be tilted towards openness as the primary operating principle. To do that, unearthing secrets, valuable though it may be, is not enough.

It’s exactly these issues that Jay Rosen takes up in this recent piece at Pressthink.

A conspiracy…

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David Miranda, Picking Through The Issue

Soupy One

There is considerable discussion of the detention of David Miranda and the lines are forming up.

On one side, those who seem to hate Glenn Greenwald and would probably justify any action against him or his partner, short of throwing them into Gitmo!

On the other, those concerned with the implications of the detention. I rarely find myself agreeing with Andrew Sullivan but he sums up the wider issue of Snowden’s exposé:

“Readers know I have been grappling for a while with the vexing question of the balance between the surveillance state and the threat of Jihadist terrorism. When the NSA leaks burst onto the scene, I was skeptical of many of the large claims made by civil libertarians and queasily sympathetic to a program that relied on meta-data alone, as long as it was transparent, had Congressional buy-in, did not accidentally expose innocent civilians to grotesque privacy loss, and…

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Still wondering why we need a stateless media entity like WikiLeaks? This is why

Gigaom

If it wasn’t already obvious that the U.S. government is targeting journalists as part of its ongoing war on leaks, it should be fairly clear now that Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald’s partner has been detained for nine hours in a British airport and had all of his electronics seized by authorities looking for classified documents like the ones Greenwald got from former CIA contractor Edward Snowden. More than anything, this kind of behavior highlights the value of having a stateless, independent media entity such as WikiLeaks.

And if that wasn’t enough, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has written about an almost unprecedented effort by British authorities to force the newspaper to stop reporting on the government’s surveillance of its citizens — including the seizure and destruction of hard drives at the newspaper’s offices and warnings about future action if the reporting continues. Rusbridger said the paper will continue its work, but…

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Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald to be more aggressive in reporting leaks

Newsdesk International

The Guardian journalist, whose partner was detained by British authorities and questioned over the weekend said he plans to publish much more aggressively the documents leaked to him by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

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Snowden Reporter: Won’t Be Silenced by Detention

Republicans, Democrats both divided on whether media should report on secret anti-terror methods

Media Politics in Perspective

By Katie Reilly

The American public is divided in its approval of the government’s anti-terrorism surveillance programs as well as in its opinion about whether the news media should report on what it finds out about secret methods being used to fight terrorism.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 50% of Americans approve of the government’s collection of telephone and internet data as part of anti-terrorism efforts, while 44% disapprove. In addition, Americans are evenly divided about whether the news media should report on the government’s secret anti-terrorism methods, with 47% saying it should and an equal number disagreeing.

Both Democrats and Republicans reflect these divisions. Half (51%) in each party say the news media should not report information they obtain about the secret methods the government uses to fight terrorism. About the same percentage of Democrats (45%) and Republicans (43%) say the news media should report that…

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Snowden in Moscow, the end of Week Five

eats shoots 'n leaves

An irony-laced wrap-up from Russia Today on America’s Most Wanted. . .

Leaker’s Labour’s Won: Snowden’s 5 week airport limbo as it was

The program notes:

One chapter in Edward Snowden’s saga was closed this week. The US whistleblower on-the-run has finally left the transit limbo of a Moscow airport, where he’s been stuck for more than a month. Snowden’s been granted temporary asylum in Russia — and has already received some job offers, including one from Russia’s biggest social network. While his whereabouts at the moment remain unknown, RT’s Lindsay France recaps the media’s chase for the former NSA contractor.

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Debate over NSA programs gets renewed attention amid terror threat

Man who showed journalists alleged Rob Ford crack video arrested, offered tape to police for plea deal: reports

Glenn Greenwald, Jeffrey Toobin Argue Over Bradley Manning Verdict

Media Politics in Perspective

By Jack Mirkinson

 

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin argued fiercely with Glenn Greenwald about the verdict in the Bradley Manning trial on Tuesday’s “AC360.”

Manning was found guilty on 19 counts, including six counts of espionage, for his leaks to WikiLeaks, but was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy. Press freedom groups immediately criticized the ruling, and others worried it could intimidate future leakers and whistleblowers.

Toobin, though, thought the judge, Col. Denise Lind, had gotten it right. He called Manning’s leaks “appalling,” adding, “he should be going to prison and he will be.”

Greenwald said Toobin’s remarks showed that “if you’re sufficiently rich and powerful and well-connected in Washington, the laws don’t apply to you. You don’t get punished. The only people who do are people like Bradley Manning.” He compared Manning to Bob Woodward, who publishes classified information all the time. Toobin said the…

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