********* 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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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