The Justice Department obtained the credit reports, credit card statements, personal bank records, travel records and telephone call information for New York Times reporter James Risen during its espionage investigation of St. Louisan Jeffrey Sterling, according to a recent court filing.
At a time when millions of Americans have a cell phone with video and audio capability and when videotapes of police misconduct often are the stuff of news reports, Illinois is leading the nation in prosecuting citizens who tape officers in public. Illinois has one of the three most restrictive eavesdropping laws in the country, along with Maryland and Massachusetts. And Illinois police and prosecutors are not shy about using the law to punish the taping of arrests and interrogations.
News organizations have the right – the responsibility even – to discipline or fire reporters who violate professional ethical.
The surreptitious recording of conversations by a reporter – a tricky legal and ethical issue – is the latest charge that prosecutors have raised about the tactics used by David Protess’ students at the Medill Innocence Project. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez maintained in a written statement that the secret recording raised “serious legal and ethical questions about the methods that the professor and his students employed during their investigation.” The Innocence Project’s investigation concluded that Anthony McKinney was innocent of the 1978 murder of a security guard in Harvey, Ill. The Innocence Project has been influential in freeing 11 people from death row in Illinois.
If you were following the coverage of the 2010 congressional election, you probably got the idea that Republicans greatly outspent Democrats, that campaign money had a lot to do with the Republican landslide and that a January decision of the U.S. Supreme Court – Citizens United – opened the floodgate to the huge, secret corporate contributions. That was the refrain of innumerable press reports in the mainstream media, such as NPR. But parts of that picture are misleading, exaggerated or, at least, unprovable based on current campaign finance data.