If you must be in the Congressional Record ...
For some odd reason, it never occurred to me that serving as SPJ's president would land my name in the
Congressional Record. But that's indeed what happened today.
To be honest, I cringed at first. After all, respectable journalists diligently monitor the activities, debates and proceedings of Congress. They don't become a part of them. Here I was breaking a sacred rule drummed into my head since journalism school: "Cover the news. Never make the news."
I dispensed with the handwringing in short order. I will not apologize for defending the improvement and protection of journalism and the free flow of information to the public. If that means I must share my thoughts and opinions on those matters with our nation's leaders -- and even ask those leaders to support laws that champion a free press ("Oh, the horror!" some of you purists -- or are you the pious? -- are thinking ...), so be it. Somebody's gotta do it.
Don't get me wrong. I understand why many journalists grumble from the shadows. I know why they'd rather endure working on a quintuple-bylined story due to the desk in just under 10 minutes than to ask a politician for anything. Such conversations feel too much like icky requests for personal favors. I get it. Trust me.
At the same time, I also believe firmly that journalists must do more for journalism and the First Amendment than what it takes for them to collect their paychecks. Those who assume their news organization's lawyers (or the lawyers at larger news organizations) will handle all the "advocacy work" on their behalf are fooling themselves. Those who think they're stalwart defenders of a free press just because they show up for work every day, break a few big stories and file an occasional Freedom of Information Act request are downright delusional.
This, of course, is where SPJ comes in. The Society is one of very few journalism organizations in the country that can lobby to support First Amendment interests. It offers an effective way for journalists to make their voices heard loudly and clearly. They need never step from the shadows -- or add their name to the Congressional Record. They need only to become a member.
Sooooo, why'd I wind up in the Congressional Record? SPJ is one of 28 organizations that signed on to a letter sent today to members of a conference committee for budget approprations to the Department of Homeland Security.
We urged those committee members to adopt section 525 of the U.S. House's version of H.R. 5441. What the heck would that do? It would help correct the misuse of the "Sensitive Security Information" (SSI) designation that a whole lot of government officials like to slap on information that has no business being kept secret. The SSI marking has been abused to cover up embarrassing government activities.
Here's an interesting example of SSI abuse: The Transportation Security Administration uses the SSI marking to block public access to information that's even widely known! (Don't take it from me. Take it from Judge Charles R. Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In 2004, he faulted the the TSA and FBI for making numerous "frivolous claims of exemption" for "innocuous" information that even boils down to common sense.)
As the letter, spearheaded by OpentheGovernment.org and co-signed by SPJ, states:
"An example of widely-known information to which the TSA has applied SSI, apparently in an effort to block public access, includes 'the texts or even the titles of five aviation warnings given to airlines just before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, even though the titles and the substance of the warnings have been published in the best-selling 9/11 Commission report,' as reported by the National Security Archive in 2004. The warnings, distributed to each of the airlines before 9/11, and publicly available on the Internet and in the FAA reading library before 9/11, described the threats to civil aviation presented by Islamist extremists and specifically named Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. Now, more than five years later after those same terrorists attacked on 9/11, the release of those warnings given to the aviation industry before 9/11 cannot possibly present a risk to the nation's transportation system. Yet they remain designated SSI by the TSA, thwarting efforts at accountability related to 9/11 and to ensure improved security."