Spring Break
Markman's Musings: The hypocrisy of surveillance
Joe Markman
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Editorial/Opinion
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10/02/07 - More than 90 million people tuned in last February to watch the Steelers beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, the largest turnout since 1996, when 94.1 million people watched the Cowboy dynasty's last triumph.
And this season, the NFL's 88th, America's richest and most popular sports league began a concerted effort to control what its millions of fans see, read and hear about its players and teams.
The league has implemented new restrictions on access to team personnel and facilities for non-affiliated news organizations. It is also pushing fans and advertisers toward its own cable channel and Web site. In order to get richer, it seems, the NFL is looking to clean up its rocky off-the-field image by censoring information for fans.
It appears the NFL is simply on the leading edge of a popular phenomenon. The trend of controlling what people see, read and hear is a national one. And while the NFL has no reason to institute increased surveillance of its fan base, the federal government is, at the same time, restricting access to information and beefing up surveillance efforts.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last week claiming that the U.S. government violated the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens in denying someone a political forum. The government revoked the visa of Adam Habib, a well-known South African scholar, after his outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq and the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In the wake of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University, it is laughable to think that our government officials would refuse a political scholar access to the country so that he might add to our well of political thought.
While the government of our free and democratic nation continues to find ways to punish those with opposing viewpoints, the Transportation Security Administration is ratcheting up its already burdensome security at airports. Last week, USA Today reported that new TSA security measures, if broadened, could lead to a future like "Blade Runner," where cameras and body scanners monitor voice, movement, speech, gait, pulse, perspiration and body odor to spot suspicious people.
And this season, the NFL's 88th, America's richest and most popular sports league began a concerted effort to control what its millions of fans see, read and hear about its players and teams.
The league has implemented new restrictions on access to team personnel and facilities for non-affiliated news organizations. It is also pushing fans and advertisers toward its own cable channel and Web site. In order to get richer, it seems, the NFL is looking to clean up its rocky off-the-field image by censoring information for fans.
It appears the NFL is simply on the leading edge of a popular phenomenon. The trend of controlling what people see, read and hear is a national one. And while the NFL has no reason to institute increased surveillance of its fan base, the federal government is, at the same time, restricting access to information and beefing up surveillance efforts.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last week claiming that the U.S. government violated the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens in denying someone a political forum. The government revoked the visa of Adam Habib, a well-known South African scholar, after his outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq and the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In the wake of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University, it is laughable to think that our government officials would refuse a political scholar access to the country so that he might add to our well of political thought.
While the government of our free and democratic nation continues to find ways to punish those with opposing viewpoints, the Transportation Security Administration is ratcheting up its already burdensome security at airports. Last week, USA Today reported that new TSA security measures, if broadened, could lead to a future like "Blade Runner," where cameras and body scanners monitor voice, movement, speech, gait, pulse, perspiration and body odor to spot suspicious people.
