• unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 months ago

    Here some excerpts for lazy people like me. This is how they try to justify not doing anything about a lack of privacy for US citizens.

    Getting a FISA court order is bureaucratically cumbersome and would slow down investigations — especially fast-moving cybercases

    Yeah sure, because we dont constantly keep seeing atrocities being commited even when the feds already had intel weeks, months or even years before anything happened.

    probable cause needed for a warrant is rarely available early in an investigation. But that’s precisely when these queries are most useful

    So we just abolish probable cause and the burden of proof step by step because it makes things slightly easier? Sounds like fascism to me.

  • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    You know what would keep us safer? If the most prominent news agency in the US actually did its job and did critical journalism instead of acting like RT news.

    For example, more intelligence gathering power given to intelligence agencies would not have stopped the Iraq war. If anything, the more power given to these agencies, the more official they sound when they make boldfaced lies because people assume they most know something actually substantiative with all that intelligence capacity.

    We would have just launched even faster into the Iraq war.

    Which of course is the point

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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      8 months ago

      Waxman worked under Bush as a senior national security advisor. So the administration that believes in torture is advising us that government surveillance is fine and keeps you safe? Not sure I trust the source.

      This is a guest opinion essay that many disagree with but find interesting. I don’t think it represents NYT’s views.

    • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s an opinion article, so I don’t think NYT has committed any malpractice here. They published an op-ed from Pence last week about Trump not being harsh enough on abortion, but that absolutely does not mean they dislike abortion. There are people who wanted FISA renewed because they are in intelligence services and see the benefits directly. I’m also skeptical of mass surveillance laws, but I’m glad NYT posted this article so I could read an opinion from someone who disagrees, and I don’t think this establishes an opinion or stance on the part of NYT at all because it’s not what op-eds are for.

      • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I’m also skeptical of mass surveillance laws, but I’m glad NYT posted this article so I could read an opinion from someone who disagrees, and I don’t think this establishes an opinion or stance on the part of NYT at all because it’s not what op-eds are for.

        Op-ed pieces are about establishing the Overton Window, not establishing a news agencies position on anything. The fact that the NYT considers this part of a reasonable overton window is embarrassing and honestly revolting.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Oh, man, a pro authoritairan-level-surveillance article from the NYT.

    I did NAZI that coming!

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        That would only be a valid argument if the New York Times posted anything, from anybody that sent it to them for it to be posted.

        Since that is not the case and the NYT is selective on what it choses to post as “opinion pieces” one can only conclude that the opinion piece that they chose to post is aligned with their line of thinking or at least does not add up to an effective argument against it.

        Considering how the NYT specifically chose a known pro-Israeli who is not a journalist to write actual news articles about the Israeli attack of Gaza, it’s extremelly hard to believe that when selecting which opinion pieces to publish in their newspaper they would refrain from trying to shape opinion.

        • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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          8 months ago

          This history of the opinion pieces is an interesting one. I just wanted to point those two facts out to anyone who may have missed that in the headline.

          More info if you’re interested:

          https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/insider/opinion-op-ed-explainer.html

          The Opinion section operates editorially independently from the rest of the newspaper. It is the section’s unique mission both to be the voice of The Times, and to challenge it. The Op-Ed pages were born, in part, because of the closing of New York’s top conservative newspaper, The New York Herald Tribune. They were created to be opposite the editorial pages — and not just physically.

          “The purpose of the Op. Ed. page is neither to reinforce nor to counterbalance The Times’s own editorial position,” the introduction to the newly created opinion pages stated in 1970. “The objective is rather to afford greater opportunity for exploration of issues and presentation of new insights and new ideas by writers and thinkers who have no institutional connection with The Times and whose views will very frequently be completely divergent from our own.”

          Just to highlight that last bit: The opinions are frequently chosen to be completely divergent from those held by the NYT staff.

  • jaspersgroove@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    What’s the old saying, Ben Franklin said it if I remember right?

    Those who would give up freedom in exchange for security deserve neither and will lose both.