Listening in in Las Vegas: wiretaps
There was an article in yesterday's Las Vegas Review-Journal that suggests that the evidence gained from local wiretaps (80 wiretap orders in the last 11 years, with over 91,000 conversations recorded) is being used in investigations beyond the scope of the original warrants.
The Review-Journal was only able to incomplete records from authorities, making it difficult to determine how this evidence was used. And given the obvious temptations and abuses that can occur when the government listens in, it's all the more important that the courts and the press play a watchdog role.
Read the full article "Listening and the Law."
THIS REMINDS ME of something that I wanted to pass on. A couple of weeks ago I heard journalist Dave Davies interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Davies writes for the Philadelphia Daily News, and Fresh Air originates on Philly station WHYY. He often guests hosts for Gross.
She interviewed him to get the local angle on the Democratic presidential race ahead of Pennsylvania's April 22nd primary. One excellent point he made, unrelated to the race: that local newspapers are having trouble making money in cities across the nation, and the biggest impact may be a decrease in local investigative reporting. The national media are unlikely to investigate local corruption and other such stories.
If it wasn't the Review-Journal, who'd be investigating these wiretaps?
I subscribe even though I get a lot of my news online. If you don't get your local paper, Davies' point is a good one to consider.
The Review-Journal was only able to incomplete records from authorities, making it difficult to determine how this evidence was used. And given the obvious temptations and abuses that can occur when the government listens in, it's all the more important that the courts and the press play a watchdog role.
Read the full article "Listening and the Law."
THIS REMINDS ME of something that I wanted to pass on. A couple of weeks ago I heard journalist Dave Davies interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Davies writes for the Philadelphia Daily News, and Fresh Air originates on Philly station WHYY. He often guests hosts for Gross.
She interviewed him to get the local angle on the Democratic presidential race ahead of Pennsylvania's April 22nd primary. One excellent point he made, unrelated to the race: that local newspapers are having trouble making money in cities across the nation, and the biggest impact may be a decrease in local investigative reporting. The national media are unlikely to investigate local corruption and other such stories.
If it wasn't the Review-Journal, who'd be investigating these wiretaps?
I subscribe even though I get a lot of my news online. If you don't get your local paper, Davies' point is a good one to consider.
Labels: civil liberties, Las Vegas
posted by michael at 12:10 PM
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1 Comments:
James Boyce has a relevant post on HuffPo today regarding declining subscription bases for major daily newspapers - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-boyce/is-this-the-last-newspape_b_99085.html - seems that the more we turn to the web for our news, the fewer hard-copy papers get sold. The key to survival for today's newspaper companies will be how well they adapt to this new reality, and change their realities from paper to cyber.
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