(Previous Subject was "RE: HAPPENINGS")
Hi, John -- I addressed this note to you but it is really for anyone
interested in the news media/scanner use/abuse chat which has resulted
in the posting of some BAD info in this conference.  In an attempt to
set the record straight, clear the air, and return some modicum of
credibility here, let me start with part of Glen Harness's recent
message to you:
JF>-> ... You now hear radio transmissions between drivers and crew
JF>-> chiefs during NASCAR races shown on TV.  They've gotten prior
JF>-> permission the team to not only monitor those transmissions,
JF>-> but rebroadcast them...
Yep.  Not to mention the permission of owners and drivers and NASCAR
to put their micro-cams, complete with remote controls and pan and zoom
features inside the dang cars.  "Look!  Ma!  Movin' peektures!  And I
mean MOOOOOOOOOOOVIN'!"  Heh-heh, who'da thunk it?
By the way, racing events, as all televised sports, are not "covered" by
what is generically referred to as "the news media."  In virtually every
instance, such coverage is produced by the sports/entertainment depart-
ments of the relevant broadcasting organizations -- NOT the news
operations.
JF>-> ... the police might have given prior permission to the news as
JF>-> well...
Might, but haven't/didn't/don't/won't.  First off, (local) police
(generally meaning the truly "local" as well as city/county/state police
agencies) just don't DO federal law enforcement, especially with respect
to those of the relatively chicken-shyt FCC-flavors.  They couldn't (and
shouldn't) care less.  Overworked, underpaid, outgunned and undermanned
(in many if not most jurisdictions) police officers are just barely
holding the line on local and state matters of some importance.  There
will always be isolated examples which do not conform to this over-
generalization, but in toto, those cases do not amount to a bucket
of warm, ah, er, spit.
JF> Glen, someone on this conference, has also said that, reporters and
JF> news agencies were exempt from this law I just can't remember thier
JF> name.
I noticed that wrong-headed comment too, John, and I (too) do not
remember who made it, although I wish I did know who dun it!  Whomever
it was, he was referring to exemptions from so-called scanner laws,
especially pertaining to divulging information overheard on public
safety bands.
JF> ... My original reply was to this person, and I requested that
JF> they give me the statute # covering the exemption...
"They" haven't and they won't, because they cannot do it.  There is no
such law or statute or exemption or waiver or pass -- anywhere within
U.S. borders on this here planet, under FCC jurisdiction.  Period.
Negatory.  Nada.  Nope.  Nyet.  Kaputski.  10-Four?
JF> Unless that was you Glen, which I don't think it was, someone
JF> made that statement on this conference.
The news media (from which I am largely retired) aren't "policed"
by much of anybody, anyhow.  What's to do?  (And, come to think of
it, what politician EVER had big enough beachballs to dare order any
kind of anti-media activity?  Heh-heh.)  Along with the erroneous
attempt to establish linkage between "freedom of the press" and scanner
"law" this idea and other similar concepts are just so much eyewash.
The press freedoms referred to in the Bill of Rights pertain to the
right to publish without government harrassment, absolutely NOT any
right to "do anything" in violation of ANY law.  (Note:  There wasn't
a whole shipload of radios around [or anticipated] during the last half
of the 1700s, as I've heard it -- be they "scanners," two-way, crypto,
or [other receivers of] any flavor.)
While I doubt it, perhaps an historian here might comment on whether or
not the Constitution or the Bill of Rights exempts ANYONE from the
observance of ANY law at ANY time under ANY circumstance -- I'm
definitely NOT qualified in that department.
News reporters and camera operators aren't exempt from any laws in this
country.  (The GOOD ones usta get lotsa slack, so to speak, but never
an exemption;  not from parking regulations, posted speed limits,
spitting on the sidewalk OR rebroadcasting or otherwise reporting
what they hear on ANY non-"broadcast" band of the electromagnetic
spectrum.
JF> In the meantime I will try to locate that correspondence.
Please lemme know if you find it, John.  The author should be drawn and
quartered for giving the do-gooders yet ANOTHER example of wrong-headed,
BAD info, which is available over them durn computer-gizmos.  Gosh-a-
mighty!  They're gonna turn the whole world upsy-daisy before ya know
it, ya know whud I mean?
JF> ...still searching for the truth...
Don't say I didn't TRY!  Heh-heh.
                             Best regards,
                             Wm. of Truth, Liberty and the American Way
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   OLX 2.2 TD   Freeze!  Put down the scanner!  Now, back away slowly...
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