Of course there was one slight
problem. Such magazines are banned in
D.C. Rut-roh.
And then we learned the
police were actually investigating this as a potential crime. Rut-roh.
Which led to my fun:
This is your chance, @davidgregory! You can help get DC's assault weapon ban declared unconstitutional! breitbart.com/Big-Journalism…
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 25, 2012
So, @davidgregory, do you think DC's ban on assault weapons works? Cause it didn't stop you breitbart.com/Big-Journalism… #NoWayNRA #GUNCONTROLNOW
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 25, 2012
FREE LEGAL ADVICE, @davidgregory. If they charge u w violating the DC gun laws, make sure your lawyer challenges the law on 2nd A grounds.
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 25, 2012
In fact, @davidgregory, I am admitted in DC. I would be happy to represent you in a challenge to DC's gun laws breitbart.com/Big-Journalism…
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 25, 2012
And of course a point of
clarification is in order:
I want to be clear. I don't want @davidgregory to go to jail, I just find it funny the 2nd A might save him from it breitbart.com/Big-Journalism…
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 25, 2012
And then the story manages to get
worse:
ruh-roh: NBC reportedly ASKED PERMISSION to use a high capacity clip and was DENIED. @davidgregory plead the 2nd A! m.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/po…
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 26, 2012
Now since then the ATF has
helpfully thrown itself on its sword explaining that they asked some cop in
D.C. and told him based on that, that this was kosher. Which any lawyer will tell you mitigates the
crime significantly, but it is not an excuse.
But likewise, Instapundit
is right to point out that this demonstrates that the gun laws are too
complicated even for those who enforce the laws to keep them straight—so how
can we expect ordinary people to do so?
And I saw a journalistic angle to
all of this:
And will your show break the news about whether you asked the police permission to use the clip?@davidgregory
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 27, 2012
I mean isn’t it strange that we
have to hear from other news organizations about what David Gregory knew and
when he knew it? Shouldn’t they come
clean with the public immediately? Isn’t
that what journalists are supposed to do: tell the truth?
And then of course when I learned
David Gregory was going to have Barack Obama on this Sunday, the fun started
again (which made Twitchy
again).
this is @davidgregory's chance! During the interview he should ask @barackobama for a pardon for violating DC's gun laws! @brianstelter
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 28, 2012
FREE LEGAL ADVICE: @davidgregory you should totally ask for @barackobama to pardon you and your staff when you interview him Sunday on MTP.
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 28, 2012
I mean after all, D.C. is a U.S.
territory so Obama does have the power to pardon Gregory and his staff. And there was a journalistic angle to it,
too.
that raises an interesting point. Does this crim investigation create a conflict of interest 4 @davidgregory? @msebl
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 28, 2012
I mean how tough can @davidgregory be on @barackobama when he might need a pardon from him? @msebl
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 28, 2012
Of course a few people pointed
out that we really can’t expect Gregory to be hard on Obama anyway, which I
suppose is a fair point. And there was
this, too:
It'd be really awkward if @davidgregory produced an illegal gun while interviewing @barackobama & it turned out it was a fast & furious gun
— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) December 28, 2012
But one point made me hesitate a
little more, which was when Howard Kurtz suggested that Gregory should be
exempt from prosecution because this was journalism. I raised the point in a tweet I can’t find
whether Kurtz was similarly offended when James O’Keefe III was convicted of
lawbreaking in the pursuit of his journalism.
And if I can get serious for a
moment, it raises an interesting point.
Is some law breaking justified in the pursuit of journalism?
I think if there is a distinction
that can be made between James O’Keefe’s conduct and David Gregory’s it is that
O’Keefe broke the law in order to gather information. He and his crew pretended to be maintenance
workers, the story goes, in order to prove there was nothing wrong with the
phones, which was important to prove for some reason or other. By comparison, Gregory broke the law just to
get a cute visual, something he could have easily done with a picture. Oh, sure it might have been less dramatic,
but are we willing to say a person has a right to break the law for dramatic
effect?
Or for that matter, why didn’t
Gregory go across the river to Virginia where the gun laws are considerably
more pro-choice? In fact, I bet LaPierre
would be happy to host the interview in the NRA’s Northern Virginia office.
So I think that if we are going
to allow people to break laws at all for journalistic purposes, that is the
distinction to be made. And further it
needs to be codified. It should not be
this business of prosecutorial or police discretion, because the danger is that
the discretion might not be operated fairly.
Indeed, journalists who break the law might be tempted to make deals
with those who make the decision about their prosecution: I promise to go easy
on you in my coverage, if you promise not to prosecute me for the way I broke
the law to investigate this other story.
No, if we are going to accept a journalistic exception to these laws, it
needs to be a statute that says something to the effect that you may break such a
law, so long as your actions do not harm anyone else and it is for news
gathering purpose. And I think it should
be a requirement that upon gathering the information that you immediately
confess to lawful authorities what you have done, turn over any evidence, etc. If you run a story on how easy it is to buy
coke, for instance, by buying coke, at the first opportunity you should go to
the police and say, “I just purchased this coke for a news story. Here it is.
Here is a copy of my under cover footage which you can feel free to use
in any prosecutions of the bad guys.”
That’s how it should work, I think.
That is, if we should let journalists
break the law, at all. And I admit I am
not sure we should, because there is something else to consider. These days journalism can be done by
anyone. And if anyone can do journalism,
then anyone can take advantage of this exception to the law.
If you get the sense that I am of
two minds about this, you are right.
Indeed I haven’t made up my mind.
What I can say, on the other hand, is that we cannot have a situation
where the press gets away with committing crimes on an ad hoc basis because of
the danger that prosecutorial discretions brings. This status quo is unacceptable. The law should be deciding which journalist
is a criminal and which is not, and not some prosecutor.
---------------------------------------
My wife and I have lost our jobs
due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an
attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up
to ten years. I know that claim sounds
fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these
claims using documentary and video evidence.
If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin
accountable, please hit the Blogger’s Defense Team button on the right. And thank you.
Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing,
mostly for snark and site updates. And
you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent
History here.
And you can read a little more about my novel, here.
---------------------------------------
Disclaimer:
I have accused some people,
particularly Brett Kimberlin, of
reprehensible conduct. In some cases, the conduct is even
criminal. In all cases, the only justice I want is through the
appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system. I do not want to see vigilante violence
against any person or any threat of such violence. This kind of conduct is not only morally
wrong, but it is counter-productive.
In the particular case of Brett
Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him. Do not call him. Do not write him a letter. Do not write him an email. Do not text-message him. Do not engage in any kind of directed
communication. I say this in part
because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want
that to happen to him.
And for that matter, don’t go on
his property. Don’t sneak around and try
to photograph him. Frankly try not to
even be within his field of vision. Your
behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to
mention trespass and other concerns).
And do not contact his
organizations, either. And most of all, leave his family alone.
The only exception to all that is
that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with
contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might
report. And even then if he tells you to
stop contacting him, obey that request. That
this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that
a person asks you to stop and you refuse.
And let me say something
else. In my heart of hearts, I don’t
believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above. But if any of you have, stop it, and if you
haven’t don’t start.
This is the battle plan:
ReplyDelete1) Sign White house petition to force DC to charge Gregory.
2) Defend Gregory by filing friend of the court brief on Second Amendment grounds.
3) Gregory acquitted.
Love your enemies. It will drive them crazy.