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"Too many secrets" revealed by a "political actor"Who determines who is and is not a journalist?
Or, how the Federal government conspires to ignore the First
Amendment.
Yeah, offline life is interfering with
blogging.
But I wanted to point out this Raw Story piece (h/t The Agitator). Speaking to reporters recently, State Dept. Assistant Secretary Philip Rowley said that the United States does not consider WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be a "journalist" or "whistleblower." He insisted that, under US law, he's to be considered a "political actor." His criteria for reclassifying someone from protected "journalist" to a legally vulnerable "political actor": "Mr. Assange obviously has a particular political objective behind his activities, and I think that, among other things, disqualifies him as being considered a journalist," Crowley said. Asked what Assange's political objective is, he replied: "I think he’s an anarchist, but he’s not a journalist." Hmmmm. I think I was ahead of my time. From Blogs and information channels, October 2005. I guess my point is that there would be no question that government couldn't regulate content if I was using a low power radio station, public access cable, or even a laser printer to get my ideas across. But since it is the internet, there is this whole push of whether bloggers are "legitimate journalists" or not. Under the Constitution, the FedGov does not have the power to make that distinction, and neither do the established journalists. As others have said, the Wikileaks case is really an opening salvo of the infowars. Think about it. The United States government doesn't think that it is accountable to anyone except the elected and appointed leaders The internet frightens the politicos and bureaucrats because they can't control the information flow. They are terrified because of what you might learn. The internet is the last, best hope for freedom. Oh yeah, that first quote in the blog title? That's from Sneakers, a remarkably prescient film. 
Posted: Mon - December 13, 2010 at 03:14 PM
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 Pagan Vigil
Pagan philosopher, libertarian, and part-time trouble maker, NeoWayland watches for threats to individual freedom or personal responsiblity. There's more to life than just black and white, using only extremes just increases the problems.  My Thinking Blogger Nominees
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