Conservative Bloggers Vindicated, Advice for Leakers, and More

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Some vindication for conservative bloggers in the IRS scandal, advice for sources after the AP call-record seizure, the Bloomberg Terminal scandal, and what the people thought the newspaper industry would look like in the future.

The Totally Legal Subpoena

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice revealed that it had subpoenaed the phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors over the course of two months in 2012. Many in the media were not pleased at what the AP called an "unprecedented intrusion." Brooke talks with University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone who says, unprecedented or not, the DOJ's actions were certainly legal.

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A Source for Sources

The AP story should be a reminder not only to journalists, but also to sources, that leaking information is increasingly complicated. Brooke talks with Nick Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, about ways people can safely turn information over to journalists. Weaver gave advice to sources in Wired this week.

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Meet Strongbox

This week, to help insulate journalists and their sources from government surveillance, The New Yorker launched a new service. It’s called Strongbox, and it enables people to send messages and documents to journalists anonymously and untraceably. It was developed from code created by programmers Kevin Poulsen and the late Aaron Swartz. The New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson explains to Bob how it works.

 

Music: John Lurie - Horse Guitar

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With IRS Scandal, Conservative Bloggers Feel Vindicated

This week saw the resignation of two prominent IRS officials after it was confirmed that the agency targeted conservative nonprofit political groups during the 2012 election. The departures were at least a partial victory for conservative bloggers. They’ve been covering the story for over a year, and they’ve been mostly alone. The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone tells Bob about the story’s winding path, starting with its origin in the right-wing blogosphere.

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Bloomberg Terminals, Spying, and Business Models

Last week, it was revealed that journalists at Bloomberg News were using financial terminals sold by their parent company, Bloomberg LP, to spy on (and report on) their users. Brooke speaks with the Washington Post's Neil Irwin about Bloomberg's secret sauce for making money.

 

Music: Beacon - Late November

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A New Incentive for Cord Cutters

A company called Aereo is delivering real-time network TV on the internet with a novel technical setup which has drawn the legal wrath of all the major networks. Bob speaks Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia about how the company plans to make money in the face of legal threats from some of the most powerful media companies in the country.

 

Music: Joe Henry & Ornette Coleman - Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation

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The Future History of the Newspaper Industry

For as long as the newspaper industry has existed, people have been prognosticating about what it would look like in the future. Matt Novak, the author of the Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog, speaks with Bob about these predictions - some of which have been much more accurate than others.

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A Journalistic Civil War Odyssey

In 1863, New York Tribune reporters Junius Browne and Albert Richardson were captured by the Confederate army in Vicksburg, Mississippi. What followed was an epic journey through an archipelago of Confederate prisons, a daring escape, and a perilous 300-mile trek to freedom. It's the subject of the book, Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: a Civil War Odyssey, due out at the end of the month. Author Peter Carlson takes Bob through the highs and lows of the adventure.

 

Music: Jim Taylor - Bonaparte's Retreat / Bonaparte's Charge / Bonaparte's MarchEastman Wind Ensemble - Liverpool HornpipeCraig Duncan - DixieJudy Collins - Battle Hymn of the RepublicCraig Duncan - Shiloh's Hill


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