I have, like many fellow conservatives, felt that our beloved country had slipped down the rabbit hole into George Orwell’s 1984 prior to August 6th of this year. If we hadn’t, that day cemented it. What happened on August 6th, 2013 you ask? That is the day that Department of Homeland Security took the Orwellian step of seizing a reporter’s notes on an article she had been researching on the DHS Federal Air Marshall program-which has numerous critics within its ranks. The agents who did it secured a warrant for seizing weapons based on a charge against her husband from 1989-yes, dear reader, you read that correctly 1989.
During the raid, which commenced at 4:30 a.m., executed by agents in full body armor (ala Watertown), the reporter was questioned by a Coast Guard investigator (her husband works for the Coast Guard) about whether or not she was the same Mrs. Hudson who “wrote those air marshall stories”. Mrs. Hudson confirmed that she was, the raid carried on-trashing every room in her house in the process-and they confiscated a number of small firearms-and her notes on her continuing series into the issues with the DHS Air Marshall program.
What Fourth Amendment??
So if you were thinking, “Hey they can’t do that, its against the Fourth Amendment!”, you would be 100% correct! The warrants in question cited firearms, NOT the private interviews and notes of a journalist which are STILL protected by a Supreme Court ruling on Zerilli v. Smith in which the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found:
“… that the reporter’s privilege did exist and its application depended on two factors: (1) that the information sought was crucial to a litigant’s case and (2) that the information could not be acquired from any other source.”
So, in short the DHS violated this reporters whole family’s Fourth Amendment rights by illegally seizing Mrs. Hudson’s private work notes during an intentionally intimidating raid of her family’s home. This closely resembles the behavior of other leftist nitwits who have been caught engaging in the behavior known as SWATing which came into vogue for the left a few years ago when conservative bloggers were becoming an increasingly obvious threat to the current Administrations statist agenda.
Is this what bloggers can expect?
Well you better hope that a conservative jurist is hearing your case if you are ever brought into court after a new “shield law” takes effect, if it passes the Senate (where it will hopefully die a horrible death, thus preserving the last vestage of a truly free press we have) because it will be up to him, or her, to decide if you as a blogger, tweeter or news aggregator (like Matt Drudge) are “deserving” of the protection afforded “professional” journalists who work for “official news outlets” like MSNBC, Fox and newspapers.
So, I leave you with a homework assignment-write to your Senator(s) and melt their phone lines calling for a free press. Listen to outlets like Pravda, yes that is right, I just said listen to the former propaganda wing of the Soviet empire-but they have gotten it right on numerous issues as of late like warning the citizens of the USA not to surrender their guns.
Oh, and start learning your Orwellian lingo like “double plus good”-just in case.
It is ironic that members of the media are now some of the loudest voices calling for censorship, and are willing to turn a blind eye towards government attempts to intimidate independent journalism through so-called shield laws and campaign finance laws. The editors of the Washington Post, NY Times, etc. believe that free speech should only be exercised by those whom they deem “legitimate”.
GWB says: It’s understandable, though, RL – don’t you recall all those stories talking about how the Democrats will soon have a permanent majority? If the Demos obtain a permanent majority, then the Democrat press organs have nothing to fear from the regime. Or so they think.
And, no, this isn’t *everyone* in the press. But it *is* a lot of the top folks in the organizations, as well as a lot of the powerful journalists, themselves.
Debbie says: I read this on Shlahdot.com yesterday and was struck by the idea that the readers there thought she should have had her handwritten notes encrypted. That made me wonder why she would hand write her notes. It’s obvious, since the exposure of the NSA, that she could no longer do that.
Jennifer says: Both of you have great points and I could not agree with them more. Handwritten is indeed the safest way to keep notes for bloggers or journalists these days thanks to the intrusion of the NSA into all of our digital lives. Keep speaking the truth-eventually it will win out. Be brave, happy warriors and keep going like Breitbart would.
Jodi says: Any residual doubt that we are indeed living in a police state?
5 Comments