Legal Commentary

Shame on CNN

By Lawrence Lessig

This story is absurd. The message here is that Governor Rendell somehow screwed up because he said something not intended for broadcast near an open mic. But wait a minute: Who did the wrong here? It is plain from the context that Rendell did not intend his comments for public consumption. Yet intentionally or not, ever-more-invasive technologies captured what he said. So why isn't the outrageous behavior here broadcasting what he plainly intended to be a private conversation, rather than, as this commentator makes it seem, the fact that he was having a private conversation at the mic?

Or again: To be sure, Rendell would be wise to remember that there are a million privacy invading technologies surrounding us, and that he, like a citizen in the former Soviet Republic, needs to make sure that whatever he says isn't been snooped. But whether Rendell was wise or not (and I certainly have criticized him for not being wise), why isn't the outrageous behavior taking what he plainly didn't intend to be public and broadcasting it on a world-wide network?

Just because you can see, doesn't mean you should look. And just because you looked, doesn't mean you should broadcast what you saw to the whole world. I know a little titillation is good for ratings; I hadn't known CNN had begun to stoop to such lows.

Full post as published by Lessig Blog on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).