We've filed a motion to quash my subpoena from the DoJ

[Declan McCullagh]

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 at well.com>
>>Subject: FC: We've filed a motion to quash my subpoena from the DoJ
>>To: politech at 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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>
>