Save Fourth Estate

Ok, dear worst-reader, scandals can also be boring. I also mentioned that there is a “barrage” of scandals looming around Obama’s presidency right now. But I only talked about one of those scandals. This morning I realised that perhaps my use of the word “barrage” doesn’t quite fit. As worst-writer, I often rush to judge and hence pick a few too many, a few too few, and more often than not, not the right words at all. Nomatter. There is one other scandal worth worst-mentioning before I leave Obama to deal with this krapp by himself.

Reviewing the newz this morning reminded me of how truly brilliant Mr. Schwartz was and, in my book, this guy has to be a legend by now. Unfortunately Mr. Schwartz died by hanging himself in his apartment. He did that in order to avoid the shameful over-reach of government careerists that are incapable of seeing how their idears of justice and righteousness have become so skewed. The simple fact of the matter is that government careerists are no different than corporate careerists. These people are the greed-mongers and hoarders and those that have ever so gently but systematically and increasingly marginalised life for the rest of us. In order to justify even having jobs, these people must go about their days looking like they are being productive–even though they can’t be productive due to the fact that American’t has chosen to replace the concept of productivity with compulsion and behaviourism. Do as you’re told. Follow the rules without thinking for yourself. Fit in. Ride laurels. Etc., etc. But I digress.

The other scandal from the Obama presidency right now is the one involving the Associated Press and the DOJ (the same group that over-reached with Aaron Schwartz). The DOJ illegally wiretapped and gathered information about AP reporters in order to find out who leaked information to the press (see vid below). Of course, scandal here or there, none of this krapp matters because there is still a speck of hope for the rest of us. That speck of hope is in the form of code. And it is Mr. Schwartz’s code. As bad as the story is about the DOJ illegally gaining access to AP reporters, IMHO, it pales to the simple greatness of Schwartz’s last code, which is being implemented by The New Yorker in order to protect news sources. Way to go Mr. Schwartz. I’m not sure how much this is going to help the rest of us, the marginalised, but I’m glad you were able to leave this code.

And now, (sarcasm on) let’s all worst-cheer the demise of the Fourth Estate.

Links:

• Aaron Swartz – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Strongbox and Aaron Swartz : The New Yorker
• The New Yorker | Strongbox
• USB dead drop – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Aaron Swartz’s Last Project: Open Source System To Securely & Anonymously Submit Documents To The Press | Techdirt
• Fourth Estate – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rant on.

-tgs-