Bill, I apologize on behalf of my colleague. You are, of course, correct. I didn't read the article before it was published (for reasons you can imagine), and in fact I didn't catch that error before I sent it out. I've forwarded your message internally. To answer your question, no, editors don't do fact checking at daily or supra-daily news orgs. Generally only magazines have fact-checkers; everyone else relies on their reporters to do so. -Declan At 02:48 PM 3/30/01 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:

Declan - Do you know how to reach this clueless reporter's editor? Does Wired News _have_ editors that check this stuff out?

"Assassination Politics" is, of course, not a site, just an essay, and while Bell may be an obsessive wacko, he does know the technology well enough to know that digital cash and anonymous remailers aren't sufficiently developed or deployed to actually implement AP. The web page that the article points to, on John Young's Cryptome archive site, is not an assassination service, but merely a copy of Bell's essay.

Given the current trial, this sort of irresponsible reporting is not only potentially libelous, it could endanger Bell's ability to get a fair trial if read by any potential jurors.

Bill Stewart

...

From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: We've filed a motion to quash my subpoena from the DoJ To: politech@politechbot.com Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:30:53 -0500 X-URL: http://www.mccullagh.org/ X-URL: Politech is at http://www.politechbot.com/ User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.2i

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42735,00.html

When Reporting Becomes Testifying by Farhad Manjoo 2:00 a.m. Mar. 30, 2001 PST

Declan McCullagh -- the Wired News reporter who on March 8 was subpoenaed by the Justice Department to testify in the case against cypherpunk Jim Bell -- filed a motion on Thursday with the U.S. District Court to quash the subpoena, claiming it would violate the First Amendment protections accorded to journalists.

Bell, who is famous for popularizing "Assassination Politics," a site that incorporated digital cash and encryption in a scheme to anonymously off political figures, has been charged with two counts of violating federal stalking laws. The trial is set to begin on Tuesday in Tacoma, Washington.

McCullagh has covered the Bell saga for Wired News, and the government says it only needs him to verify the statements attributed to Bell in two of McCullagh's stories, according to an e-mail sent to McCullagh from Assistant U.S. Attorney Robb London.

But "that would leave a lot of leeway for the defense to ask me questions -- and that's where it starts to get really messy really quickly," McCullagh said on Thursday from his home in Washington, D.C.

[...]

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