Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 160 posts

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#91

Post by bb88 »

thinkcontext wrote: post #49

On top of the judge signing off on the warrant when this likely contradicted federal law, we have this: > When the newspaper asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit required by law to issue a search warrant, the district court issued a signed statement saying no such affidavit was on file, the Record reported. Not a lawyer and I know it takes quite a lot for a judge to be disciplined but that would seem to b…

US federal law says a search warrant can't be issued against journalists to anything that remotely looks like reporting. Instead police must subpoena a journalist instead to show up with the materials requested. The journalist can then get a lawyer and quash the subpoena in court.

https://www.mcguirewoods.com/news-resources/publications/med...

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#92

Post by deadbeeves »

millzlane wrote: post #76
thinkcontext wrote: post #49

On top of the judge signing off on the warrant when this likely contradicted federal law, we have this: > When the newspaper asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit required by law to issue a search warrant, the district court issued a signed statement saying no such affidavit was on file, the Record reported. Not a lawyer and I know it takes quite a lot for a judge to be disciplined but that would seem to b…

In my probable cause affidavit in Baltimore fabricated by the GTTF, They said they found white powedery residue in my garbage, but noone in the household consumes any while powedery drugs certainly not enough for there to be a garabge bag full of evidence to get a warrant. But somehow it happened in Baltimore too, "The greatest city in America!"[1] [1] https://www.wypr.org/2023-01-23/whats-with-those-the-greates...

Even if there was white powder in the trash, there's an enormous number of substances and products that appear as white powders when desiccated.

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#93

Post by pessimizer »

empath-nirvana wrote: post #62
hanniabu wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit naive to think there's freedom of press in this country (freedom to publish without retribution)

Freedom of the press is not freedom to publish "without retribution", and never has been. It is freedom to publish without _government_ retribution. If you publish some awful stuff, other people are allowed to point out that you said awful stuff and there are consequences for that, and that's how it's supposed to work.

You have no legal basis for saying this, because US freedom of the press rules are about prior restraint, and government retribution isn't prior restraint. You also have no philosophical basis for saying this, because nobody put you in charge of defining what freedom of the press means to everyone else, and you've offered no references to people more respected than yourself on the subject.

But good luck with a definition of freedom of the press that doesn't include when white mobs would break into black newspapers, break the presses, and burn the building down. Does freedom of the press give the government an obligation to prosecute, or nah?

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#94

Post by MisterBastahrd »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #12
myself248 wrote: post #6

If the article is even half accurate, they must be using a different definition of "identity theft" than the one I understand.

Are there any details about those allegations? I'd be interested to see what the warrant gave as cause. We seem to be jumping to the conclusion that these journalists are innocent.

When you take literally everything that isn't nailed down from a journalism business that needs its resources to operate, it's not really jumping to conclusions to determine what kind of action this is. This is an action to squash the article and attempt to drive the paper out of business.

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#95

Post by amalcon »

hanniabu wrote: post #60
Kapura wrote: post #48

This is really, really upsetting to be happening in my country. I know it is a very big country, and Kansas isn't exactly proximate, but we are either a country that protects the press, or we are a country where the press protects those who have power. If this is allowed to pass without the people ordering the raid fired, I am not optimistic about what the future holds.

It's a bit naive to think there's freedom of press in this country (freedom to publish without retribution)

Unquailfied "freedom to publish without retribution" is obviously impossible. Publishing can be retribution; for an extreme example, see: "Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

You can make "freedom to publish without retribution" possible only by qualifying the kind of publishing and/or the kind of retribution.

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#96

Post by pessimizer »

arunharidas wrote: post #90

NPR cheered when conservative media got targeted and when they came after them they're crying violation of freedom of press. You can't have the cake and eat it too.

Who cares what NPR thinks? You're like one of those people who chooses their positions based on the opposite of what Trump said. How can you recognize NPR as illegitimate, yet give them control over you?

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#97

Post by mindslight »

adventured wrote: post #57
Kapura wrote: post #48

This is really, really upsetting to be happening in my country. I know it is a very big country, and Kansas isn't exactly proximate, but we are either a country that protects the press, or we are a country where the press protects those who have power. If this is allowed to pass without the people ordering the raid fired, I am not optimistic about what the future holds.

It is a really big country and there's very little that can stop something like this from happening upfront. A corrupt person is always going to make it some distance before they're stopped, before the corrupt action gets enough sunlight on it. Said corrupt person isn't going to always make it easy to spot/stop, or easy to prosecute. You have to prosecute and pursue justice after the crime/s, not before. Justice is r…

> You have to prosecute and pursue justice after the crime/s, not before. Justice is rarely a fast event

While I'm sympathetic to your comment in isolation, do you think there is any chance that after the slow wheels of justice do turn, these violent thugs and their facilitators are actually going to end up in prison for armed assault, robbery, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, etc? This is the breakdown in the rule of law that people are outraged about, regardless of the somewhat unreasonable desire that justice should happen quicker. If justice were merely slow but still dependable, people wouldn't be nearly as outraged.

Also if there were a consistent pattern of rogue law enforcement employees getting designated as having acted outside of their state-granted authority, prosecuted as regular criminals, and going to prison, this particular incident would have been less likely to happen in the first place. So given the larger context it's a bit specious to say we just need to give the situation time, when time mostly serves to make the widespread attention fade.

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#98

Post by sitkack »

Kapura wrote: post #48

This is really, really upsetting to be happening in my country. I know it is a very big country, and Kansas isn't exactly proximate, but we are either a country that protects the press, or we are a country where the press protects those who have power. If this is allowed to pass without the people ordering the raid fired, I am not optimistic about what the future holds.

Fired isn't enough. Poor people go to jail. The powerful move on to the next job where willingness to participate in corruption is a merit badge itself.

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#99

Post by mkovach »

staplers wrote: post #80
mkovach wrote: post #50

Seems to me this might be plain old intimidation. The folks involved, which includes the Police Chef, see that somebody is leaking information to the press and a trying very hard to find they leak(s). Since they can't figure out who, and the press isn't publishing anything they are cranking up the heat. In both cases he says that they are investigating allegations. In fact, at one point it is said, they turned over i…

Gotta imagine they're onto a big, long thread if they're trying this hard to cover it up.

As, I said, things remain that same.

The cover-up is always a bigger story. Ask Nixon :)

Re: Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

#100

Post by jjk166 »

mcpackieh wrote: post #75
empath-nirvana wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom of the press is not freedom to publish "without retribution", and never has been. It is freedom to publish without _government_ retribution. If you publish some awful stuff, other people are allowed to point out that you said awful stuff and there are consequences for that, and that's how it's supposed to work.

> Freedom of the press is not freedom to publish "without retribution", and never has been. It is freedom to publish without _government_ retribution. You're talking about the American First Amendment specifically, not freedom of the press generally. The World Press Freedom Index includes sociocultural context and safety; if journalists are being attacked by mobs of angry citizens that is obviously a problem for the…

Well we already have laws against mobs violently attacking people. Freedom of the press means you suffer no legal consequences from publishing, which would include refusal of the government to enforce its laws to protect people from violence because of what they had published. But if people don't like what you're publishing, they must be free for exactly the same reason to express their opinions and act as they see fit within the normal limits of the law.
Post reply on HN