FC: When anyone can publish, who's a journalist now?

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 29 2001 - 08:01:30 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Can you cover ads on the web? Gator lawsuit seeks to find out"

    	
    *********
    
    To: declanat_private
    cc: politechat_private
    Subject: Re: FC: Prosecutors, judges keep Vanessa Leggett in jail for 37 days
    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 12:13:02 -0400
    From: Dan Geer <geerat_private>
    
    Declan,
    
    This
    
       >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60302-2001Aug25.html
       >So let's return to the question: Just who is a writer? The
       >obvious first answer to the question is: Anyone who writes.
       >That is the old formula -- if it walks like a duck, and quacks
       >like a duck . . . . But such an all-embracing definition may be
       >too broad for situations where there are strong countervailing
       >societal interests. A murder investigation would be viewed as
       >such a situation. Someone with crucial information shouldn't be
       >able to declare himself a "writer" and thus frustrate a
       >legitimate state inquiry.
    
    leads to a very interesting thought experiment:  The privileges being
    claimed inure to the putative journalist by way of role-based access
    control.  Their "professional" role is one "characterized by or
    conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession" where
    profession is, itself, "a calling requiring specialized knowledge and
    often long and intensive academic preparation."   If you are in The
    Role, then you get access to The Privileges thereof, Q.E.D.
    
    Now the thought experiment is this:  If the Profession of Jornalists
    (PoJ) chooses to defend the proposition that anyone who wants to be one
    automatically is one, then whether I am today a journalist or not is a
    role decision that presumably I get to make, both to adopt the role and
    to rescind the role, according to my whim.  As the role has and claims
    substantial privileges, what bargain would the PoJ offer to society at
    large to justify, whether politically or morally or economically, the
    extension to the many what had heretofore been special privileges
    afforded to the PoJ few?  In other words, if the right claimed is to
    not tell law enforcement what one knows today in exchange for the
    promise to eventually tell the entire public that part of it that can
    be woven into a readable narrative, then the terms of the bargain are
    at least clear.
    
    If I were a journalist I'd worry about ending up with fewer privileges
    in exchange for many more journalists.  In the meantime, may I borrow
    your Press Pass?
    
    --dan
    
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
    You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
    Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
    To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
    This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Aug 29 2001 - 08:45:05 PDT