MMMM #380 -- Citizen Journalist On Board

•      NPR reported last week about American Airlines enforcing a no video or photos rule on their planes...including journalists and "citizen journalists", i.e. travelers who know what makes a good story and start taking video of events on board planes.

     If that's the best they can do to prevent all of those YouTube pilots/passengers-behaving- badly videos, they need to go back to start. The bad PR isn't worth it.
     We've reported about police departments doing the same thing on public streets. It's all about control, and freedom. The 1st Amendment specifically refers to "freedom of the press", but it really applies to everyone. If I have the right to shoot video of an event in public as a reporter, you have the same right as a citizen.
  

• The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the IRS scandal involves not just Tea Party groups, but fledgling journalism organizations too. The Columbia Journalism Review points out the journalism groups had a better argument for non-profit, non-political, non-tax status than The Tea folks, yet were rejected by the IRS even more broadly. 
• And on the other scandal of the week, the liberal-leaning Media Matters for America group takes down the FOX news bragging about being way out front with coverage of the "cover-up" into Benghazi.