BY PETER SCHEER–U.S. aviation officials are warning of severe flight delays due to furloughs of air traffic controllers triggered by the sequester’s across-the-board budget cuts. I have a better idea. Instead of furloughing controllers across the country, the Federal Aviation Administration should just shut down all major airports for the nation’s capital: Reagan National, Dulles [...]
For Obama’s Nominee to Head CIA: a Few Questions on Use of Drone Strikes
BY PETER SCHEER—John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee for Director of the CIA, has the bad luck of having to testify before Congress just days after publication of a Justice Department “white paper” containing the administration’s legal justification for the targeted killing of high-level Al Qaeda members who are also American citizens. The undated and unsigned white [...]
Facebook’s New Graph Search Is Google’s Nightmare Come True
By PETER SCHEER–Although the stock market yawned at Facebook’s announcement of “Graph Search,” its new search service, with investors wagering it would only hurt smaller, vertical search services like Yelp and Linkedin, the truth is that it is potentially much more significant than that. For the last several years Google’s management has had two nightmares. [...]
Google’s Antitrust Wrist Slap Is Right Result for Wrong Reason. Right Reason: Google Search Results are Protected Speech
By PETER SCHEER–Christmas 2013 came early for Google as the Federal Trade Commission, following a two-year investigation into allegations of anticompetitive practices, announced a settlement that spares Google a battle royal with the government over its core business: the selection and presentation of search results. Although the FTC extracted concessions from Google in other areas, [...]
Consumers blindsided by secret settlements in hi-tech patent lawsuits
By Peter Scheer—Apple recently announced that it had reached a global settlement of its patent disputes with HTC, a producer of smartphones using Android, the Google-owned operating system for phones and tablets that compete head-on with Apple’s phones and tablets. Although this settlement, covering some 50 lawsuits, will have a direct impact–almost certainly painful–on millions [...]
How to sabotage California’s Public Records Act
By Peter Scheer—If you were looking for a way to sabotage America’s freedom-of-information laws, you couldn’t do much better than a legal strategy being pursued by government entities in two California towns. The public school district of Willows, in Glenn County, and the town of Sebastopol, near Petaluma, have been sued, in unrelated cases, for [...]
Most Wanted Secret Doc: Justice Dept Memo Analyzing Drone Strikes Against Suspected Terrorists
In the world of secret information about powerful people, there are two sets of documents in especially high demand right now. First are Mitt Romney’s undisclosed tax returns. You already know about those. The other is a classified legal memorandum, prepared by the Justice Department, analyzing the government’s legal authority to conduct targeted killings of [...]
Candidates disclose tax returns because media demand them. Why not use same strategy for campaign contributions?
BY PETER SCHEER–Everybody has a theory about why presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, in the face of mounting criticism even within his own party, refuses to make public more of his tax returns. My two cents: His returns for the years 2000-2005, before Romney had settled on a decision to seek the presidency, will [...]
Justice Roberts Saved the Supreme Court — Here’s What He Needs to Do Next
BY PETER SCHEER —Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the upholding of President Obama’s health reform plan not because he believed that that was the legally correct outcome, and not because he wanted to spare Obama the loss of his singular legislative achievement. No, Roberts’ deft decision, substantially upholding the health law — while simultaneously accepting, [...]
Media heroism turned on its head: The real Manning scandal
By Peter Scheer • March 20, 2013 • Commentary, News & Opinion • Comments Off
BY EDWARD WASSERMAN–In media mythology, the years from the mid-‘60s to the mid-’70s were the classical age, a heroic time of moral clarity. Mainstream journalism marinated in adversarialism. Little Southern newspapers infuriated their own readers by staring down segregation. Foreign correspondents forced upon an unwilling public the realities of a brutal war. Network news ignored [...]