Media was wrong to publish Pataki's private conversations
Just because the courts say that newspapers can publish what may be illegally gained material doesn’t mean doing so is necessarily ethical.

Put yourself in the picture. Let’s just say that someone sets up an illegal wiretap on your telephone. The recording device finds you sharing your innermost fears and secrets with a trusted intimate friend, advisor or mental health professional.

Let’s just say that in the heat of the moment, you use some language you would never use in polite society. Let’s just say that you disclose business information you wouldn’t want others to know, or you display a side of yourself you wouldn’t want to share with the general public. Let’s just say you are talking about a hot date.

Is there any one of us who hasn’t said something in the privacy of our home or on the phone or in an e-mail that we would rather not share with the rest of the world? How would you feel if that material later showed up on the front page of a New York tabloid?

Now, following along, what if the despicable human being who was eavesdropping on your conversation took the tapes and dropped them at the doorstep of the lesser of the daily tabloids? What if the tabloid took the position that they didn’t know the tapes were illegally recorded? Hey, the public has the right to know and they have the right to share the material - your most intimate secrets - with the public. Remember this is YOU we are talking about, not some movie star or politician.

Whether you’re an accountant or a bus driver or a nurse, the newspaper, interested in publishing your prurient thoughts, would find some post hoc ergo propter hoc reason for publishing your secrets. They know their readers eat that stuff up and trust me on this, they will always find a self-serving reason for dishing it up. If you can understand that, we can now move on to George Pataki.

Recently some tapes came to light and their contents were published in a New York tabloid, the New York Post. They showed that George Pataki’s wife, like the rest of us, can occasionally use an explicative to punctuate her unhappiness; that she might harbor some jealousies towards other politicians’ wives; and that she really doesn’t like to work that hard. (I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!)

The tapes also gave a pretty good inside view of the way in which the Governor’s chief patronage dispenser did his job when he worked for the governor. He no longer holds that job - he is now a politically-connected lobbyist and he’s really cleaning up, in large part due to his relationship with the Patakiites. Clearly, the public never knew that when the Republicans win, they fill jobs with their people and when the Democrats win, the same thing happens.
Now let’s move to the matter of stolen property. I know a store that I think may receive stolen goods. It has been known to post signs saying, “We buy used cell phones and lap top computers.” There are some cynics who think that means they are encouraging those who have stolen things to come in and turn them over for cash. Receiving stolen property is against the law. If they catch you, they can arrest you and put you in jail. It is a no-no, but apparently not for newspapers.

You will remember the Pentagon Papers. Daniel Ellsworth stole the papers and leaked them to some of the country’s greatest newspapers. They were published in the public interest and ever since, newspapers have had the right to publish your secrets.

They will say that they didn’t know the material was stolen but even if they knew it, it’s okay because they didn’t do the stealing. In the case of the Pentagon Papers, the country was taught a valuable lesson about how public policy is made. In the case of the Pataki tapes, someone will make the same claim.

But what about where we began? What about when it happens to you? I asked a man I much respect, Speaker Sheldon Silver, about it and he shrugged it off saying that the Supreme Court had already decided the issue.

Just remember that the next time it happens to you or someone you love and you ask, “Can they do that?” that the answer is, “Yes.” Of course, some day it might happen to Rupert Murdoch, the guy who owns the Post. Maybe a family fight with his son who just quit the empire or some explicative-laden conversation with an employee will end up in the Daily News. I wonder what he’ll say then?

For his part, George Pataki is fit to be tied. I’m no fan of the guy but I’ve got to tell you, I think he’s right on this one. He says he turned his complaint over to the FBI. My bet is that it goes nowhere.
- posted by Raymond @ 9/07/2005 08:54:00 AM

 
Summer's almost gone
I, Publius

By Alan Chartock

The summer is almost over, and a whole bunch of people are breathing a collective sigh of relief. Put yourself in the shoes of Kate Maguire at Berkshire Theatre Festival, or Julianne Boyd at Barrington Stage Company, or the folks at the uptown Williamstown Theatre Festival, or Ella Baff at Jacob's Pillow, or Mark Volpe at Tanglewood, or Lola Jaffe at the Mahaiwe, or anyone at any of the summer camps or wonderful restaurants around here, and you, too, would be letting out one deep breath.

As for me, I am sad-happy. Camp Berkshires is over for another year. Of course, there's a lot of wonderful stuff coming up. We'll have the beautiful autumn and the leaves changing color and Halloween, but the rush is over. Those of us who love the summer but are here year-round will once again be able to walk into any restaurant and get a table without making a reservation. We won't get caught in traffic jams, and we won't have to invent ways to get around the usual traffic flows.

A great deal has changed over the past few months. A whole new cast of characters is running things at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. God forbid we should find out that any of them have a love life. Also in Pittsfield, they're making a rush at moving the country to the inner city, and you can't blame them. As in "Field of Dreams," they figure if they build it, we will come.

They're trying to breathe new life into Wahconah Park, and this time it seems for real. The people's money will be put into the people's park for the people's benefit. With Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson and some fun baseball, the park is what it should be.

We hear that Michael Ballon of Castle Street fame in Great Barrington is thinking of setting up a restaurant in downtown Pittsfield, and we hear that a group of well-meaning people is considering protecting Barrington Stage Company's new digs off North Street by strategically buying and rehabilitating some of the more offensive properties around the theater.

Now if only the Pittsfield Police Department could clear up the crime around the city. If they could do that, people really would come. Trust me, the power elite of Pittsfield must be pushing very hard to make that happen. If the present crime fighters can't do it, Mayor Jim Ruberto ought to make sure that someone does. Sometimes I get to wondering whether maintaining status quo offers some rewards for some people. If you don't know what I mean, think about it.

Up in Williamstown, there will always be town-gown tensions, but my conversations with the folks who run things seem to indicate that relations are better. If some of the big not-for-profits in that little town did a bit more to help make the town's tax base more solvent, there would be an even better relationship. Come on folks, we're almost there. Let's cement the deal.

Back in Great Barrington, a tiny little radio station, WBCR, has shown that, when a group of determined volunteers gets together to do something that is really worthwhile, it can move mountains. Also in Great Barrington, the Selectmen were reported to be taking no prisoners. They are finally getting their police situation under control, and there are signs of continuing top-to-bottom changes in that department.

Up in North Adams, the closing days of summer see the town's essential hospital fighting for its very life. Let me tell you, if there is a single thing that is needed in that city, it is the hospital. Everyone in North Adams ought to get on board.

North Adams is the little town that has raised itself, in no small part due to Mayor-for-Life Big John Barrett III. What with Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and its can-do president, Mary Grant, and Mass MoCA with its dynamic CEO Joe Thompson, the town has shown what operation bootstrap is all about.

As the summer comes to a close, we see that democracy is alive and well in our hills. Sometimes it takes a while for people to get it, but most of the time they do. I didn't mean to leave Stockbridge out. It has the best police chief in the Berkshires, and the town seems reasonably well managed, although it sometimes has a somewhat elitist attitude over who can have a drink or a meal on the porch of some of its restaurants. I know, because I saw the grilling the Selects gave some folks on public access TV, which may be one of the best things that has ever happened in these hills.

But don't cry. All we have to do is get through the cold and the mud, and summer will once again be a cumin' in.

Originally published in The Berkshire Eagle, 9/3/05
- posted by Raymond @ 9/07/2005 08:45:00 AM