Category Archives: news media

Thanks for helping with my dissertation, Obama.

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One of the arguments I make in my dissertation is that it is puzzling that press freedom is absent from the human rights discussion, despite its centrality for democracy and the fight against tyranny. The first reaction people usually have is to blame it on the influence of authoritarian states like China or Russia: of course they don’t want press freedom to become more prominent; it undermines their power. What we tend to forget, however, is that press freedom in democratic countries is also under increasing attack. The U.S. Department of Justice seizing confidential phone records of AP reporters is just the latest installment in the saga of ever eroding press freedoms in the West. I’m currently working on turning my first two dissertation chapters into an article about – among other things – precisely this situation. And well, the AP story comes in rather handy. In this case, what’s bad for the world, is good for my dissertation.

On the bright side, though, this whole DOJ debacle has finally drawn attention to the dismal treatment of journalists under the Obama administration. The Wonkblog explains that, worst of all, the DOJ actions are legal because of the so-called ‘third party doctrine.’ If you voluntarily turn over information to a third party, like a phone company when dialing a number or an Internet company when storing your emails in the cloud, this information won’t be protected under the Fourth Amendment.

Journalists get a bit of a special deal here. The government has established special policies to guard against inappropriate surveillance of reporters. Before an FBI agent can seek a journalist’s call records, they must get special approval from the attorney general. But that’s merely a Justice Department policy, not a constitutional requirement. The policy could be changed in the future, and the lack of independent oversight makes abuses more likely.

This clearly needs to change. Press freedom needs to be firmly anchored in our domestic legislation, and these developments show just how neglected it has become in this country. It’s no surprise that press freedom is virtually absent from the human rights debate, if even the poster child of upholding a free press is trying to undermine the principle every chance it gets.

 

Save the journalists

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The New Yorker posted an interesting article on the future of journalism in the digital age this week. It discusses the failures of CNN and the New York Post following the Boston Marathon bombings and the fake AP tweet that resulted in a Dow flash crash on April 23.

It’s worth noting that, while the hacker’s mode of transmission was social media and high-frequency trading, the immediate target was that relic from a previous era, the Associated Press. The Syrian Electronic Army had previously hacked into the accounts of CBS, NPR, and the BBC. These digital soldiers don’t like Western news coverage of the Syrian civil war, and they take the mainstream media seriously enough to try to damage it. Perhaps they take the mainstream media more seriously than people here and in Britain do.

Excellent point. No one seems to take the mainstream media seriously anymore. And according to this Harvard survey very few young Americans trust the media to do the right thing:

harvard-survey

Given the recent evidence and general trends in mainstream journalism, that’s hardly surprising. But as I argue in my dissertation, neglecting the crucial political role of the news media and instead blindly jumping on the social media bandwagon isn’t doing us any favors. As George Packer points out in The New Yorker piece, it undermines journalists and the important work they do:

And journalists, the ones who do it for a living, will continue to have their faith in the profession shaken, as they panic and let their own standards slip in order not to be embarrassed by Reddit at 2:43 in the morning. But unlike high-frequency traders, Internet entrepreneurs, and online vigilantes, journalists have a stake in those standards, which are the only reason for having professionals do the job. When people are fighting for survival they can forget the long-term interests that are its only guarantee. Perhaps the triumphs and debacles of Boston, and the Syrian Electronic Army prank on the stock market, will serve to remind journalists of how badly they’re still needed, as long as they exercise their best qualities, which include, among other things, self-restraint.