On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 17:05 -0700, Perelman, Michael wrote:
> What about the sort of investigative journalism that uncovered abuses by
> the Bush Administration? An IF Stone could do it on his own, but few of
> us have that kind of skill & tenacity.

I don't know what specific case of "investigated" abuse you have in mind
so I'll answer in general.

For administrations abuses (and corporations for that matter) current
laws severely restricts what civil servants (and employees) who know
about the abuses of their administration (and employers) can say to the
public, so these knowledgeable person have to go through "investigative"
journalists to reach the public, journalists who have laws to protect
their actions. The watergate is mostly the production of civil servants
and not of journalists.

Again it's easy to see that these laws are just a state subsidy to
journalists.

We obviously can design laws, for example around anonymity on the
internet and stronger freedom of speech for civil servants and
employees, that avoid that subsidy.

Laurent



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