(Full disclosure: I worked for Reason from 1989-98).
If you haven’t heard about the harassment of Reason magazine by a U.S. attorney in Manhattan, that’s because few major metro dailies have covered or editorialized about it.
Ken White of the Popehat blog provided the first (and to date best) coverage Monday. Here’s a good overview (language warning):
The United States Department of Justice is using federal grand jury subpoenas to identify anonymous commenters engaged in typical internet bluster and hyperbole in connection with the Silk Road prosecution. DOJ is targeting Reason.com, a leading libertarian website whose clever writing is eclipsed only by the blowhard stupidity of its commenting peanut gallery.
Why is the government using its vast power to identify these obnoxious asshats, and not the other tens of thousands who plague the internet?
Because these twerps mouthed off about a judge.
Some commenters said things along the lines of, “that judge should be taken out and shot.” The U.S. attorney, Preet Bhahara, convened a grand jury, which issued a subpoena compelling Reason to provide “any and all identifying information” Reason has (including IP addresses) about those joining into what the subpoena called a “chat.”
White got a copy of the subpoena from a source (Bhahara didn’t issue a gag order banning the release of the subpoena but did offer a stern warning to anyone who did). It’s chilling, to say the least, but not at all surprising when you consider the attack on anonymous political speech oozing from so many swamps of the Left these days.
Also on Popehat, WhitePatrick posted a list of the media outlets and blogs that have covered the controversy. As of this writing, the only “mainstream” coverage it has merited has come from the Volokh Conspiracy blog at The Washington Post, an editorial writer at the Plain-Dealer in Cleveland, a Palm Beach Post blogger, a Wall Street Journal blogger, and the editorial page of Investor’s Business Daily (another former employer of mine).
Fortunately, the list is expanding. So pass this along, while you still can.
