[TheForge] Fwd: [NH Live Free Or Die] RE: CBS's medeival weapons piece

[Bill Alleman]

Just one more. This one almost makes me cry... Mike's my man, and 
currently a driving force behind the Free State Project in NH.
-- 

   BikerBill=-                 ©¿©¬
    allemanse.com=-


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NH Live Free Or Die] RE: CBS's medeival weapons piece
Date: 5/14/2004, 1:32 PM
From: Mike <m... at yahoo.com>
To: CFiandaca at cbs.com
cc: nhlivefreeordie at yahoogroups.com, fair at fair.org, rtnda at rtnda.org,
mrc at mediaresearch.org

ATTN: Cheryl Fiandaca, CBS News,

RE: Your news mugging of Mr. Licata in Garfield, NJ

It greatly concerns me that you would seek to violate the privacy of a
private citizen in their home with your taping of his conversation with
an 'undercover' reporter. Private citizens are not public entities, and
as such, they have a much higher expectation of privacy than you seem
to respect.

Going after big corporations, bureaucrats, and elected officials with
your methods is entirely appropriate, as they enjoy privileges and
benefits accorded to them under the law which a private citizen does
not posess, and for which they are expected to act responsibly. The
fifth estate is entirely necessary to protect the rights of private
citizens against unconstitutional encroachments by such powerful
entities.

What you have done, however, is operated as an agent of the state,
enforcing unconstitutional laws against a private citizen who is simply
engaging in an entirely private vocation. He has no employees, and his
customers are entirely happy with his products.

Nor are his products illegal, whether or not they are manufactured on
his property (and I contest the right of the community to control what
one does on one's own property, so long as it does not actually harm
others). They are protected under the 2nd Amendment, of which you are
probably aware but vehemently oppose.

In operating as an agent of state oppression, you have violated the
implicit trust of the people and are abusing your position as a
journalist.

I would have thought that you would have been better trained in
journalistic ethics. You disappoint me, many other viewers of CBS, and
impugn the honor of your employer. If you were operating under orders
from your employer, that is even worse for your employer, but not in
any way absolving of your personal ethical responsibility.