News

**silversides**

Labor Department backs off plan forcing reporters to use government-issued computers

The Labor Department has backed off a plan to force news agencies to use government-issued computers and other equipment to report on jobless reports and other key economic data, following a GOP-led House hearing this week, according to several published reports.

Agency officials have said they want reporters who analyze, then write about economic reports inside their so-called “lock up” room to use U.S. computers, software and Internet lines so the government can further protect against such potential security breaches as hacking.

But the plan also resulted in cries about potential free-speech violations and the government now having computer access to news agencies.

“This proposal threatens the First Amendment,” Bloomberg News Executive Editor Dan Moss said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. “The government would literally open the reporters’ notebooks.”

Carl Fillichio, a Labor Department communications specialist, told committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., at the close of the hearing Wednesday that he would provide some flexibility on the June 15 deadline.

On Friday, Fillichio issued an e-mail received by Bloomberg and several other new agencies that said the start date is being revised, according to The Washington Examiner and NASDAQ.com
...
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/...z1xQA278VW

**Bean There** lop guest User ID: 98369 06-10-2012 10:04 PM

hahahahahahaha . . .

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 101624 06-10-2012 10:39 PM

what is the significance of a lock-up room? do reporters get access to non-public data? and why would there be data that reporters see that isn't public access?

**Smilin' Eyes**

LoP Guest Wrote:

what is the significance of a lock-up room? do reporters get access to non-public data? and why would there be data that reporters see that isn't public access?

This.

If so, then Freedom of Speech is still an issue.

I truly feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone, I've always known that the gov't hides things from the public but it seems like they are no longer bothering to be discreet about hiding that fact.