On Monday, Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, released in a tweet that the FBI created a fake news story to gain information on a suspect of several bomb threats to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington. The fake news story donned an AP byline and was posted on a look-a-like site for The Seattle Times.
The FBI then sent the malware-infested link to the suspect through the suspect’s MySpace account. When opened, the link provided the bureau with the suspect’s location and Internet Protocol address. A 15-year-old was arrested for the threats.
We acknowledge that the FBI had good intentions — prevent a potential school bombing. Such threats should be taken seriously and should warrant the utmost enforcement efforts. However, the bureau’s actions were also an assault on journalism. Traditionally, news outlets have been seen as the fourth and unofficial check on government, a role they still hold. Newspapers and other forms of media strive to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
There is also this inherent trust between a news organization and their readers or viewers — that what they report is not only accurate but as void of outside influence and bias as possible. When the FBI created the fake article and designed it to look like it was real, they betrayed some of that trust between journalism outlets and their readers. When it intruded on an industry outside its own, the bureau stepped over the line for what is appropriate government interference.
Kathy Best, editor of The Seattle Times, released a statement of the incident Tuesday in an article titled, “FBI created fake Seattle Times Web page to name bomb-threat suspect.”
“We are outraged that the FBI, with the apparent assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, misappropriated the name of The Seattle Times to secretly install spyware on the computer of a crime suspect,” she wrote. “Not only does that cross a line, it erases it. Our reputation and our ability to do our job as a government watchdog are based on trust. Nothing is more fundamental to that trust than our independence — from law enforcement, from government, from corporations and from all other special interests. The FBI’s actions, taken without our knowledge, traded on our reputation and put it at peril.”
We agree with Best. They risked the reputation of a credible news organization to catch a criminal — a minor who received 90 days in juvenile detention. It was an unnecessary risk that conveyed a disrespect for a free press, a United States tradition set out by our forefathers that is at the heart of our country. There are other supposed links a teenage boy can be lured with. The FBI should have used one of those.
We hope that the government never disrespects our country’s free press under the guise of benevolence again.