Bloggers, The TSA and Pressure on Sources

Even in my quasi-social media isolation, I became aware that there was some sort of run-in happening between bloggers and the US Transport Security Administration (TSA), based on bloggers republishing a new directive in the wake of the Christmas Day bombing attempt. 

Now I’ve had the chance to poke around, I find it interesting for two reasons. For one, this indicates that good bloggers are becoming more and more prone to the same sorts of pressures to disclose their sources that journalists are. Both [Steven Frischling](http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/) and [Christopher Elliott](http://www.elliott.org/) have been subpoenaed by the authorities.The line between the journalist and blogger, never very clear to begin with, is becoming ever more muatble, as journalist and blogger Mary Kirby (right) [points out on her Runway Girl blog](http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/runway-girl/2009/12/paying-a-price-for-setting-the.html) *(Disclosure: Runway Girl is part of FlightGlobal, which is owned by my employer)*. Mike Arrington of TechCrunch [makes the point rather more stridently](http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/02/the-tyranny-of-government-and-our-duty-of-confidentiality-as-bloggers/)…

The second thing? Imagine, for example, if one of the agents left behind his notebook in a public place. And if that found its way into the hands of our of our journalists, [say Ms. Kirby? Gosh](http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/runway-girl/2010/01/exclusive-tsa-agents-notebook.html). No wonder [Boing Boing picked up on it](http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/03/report-tsa-special-a.html). 

It may be the dog-end of the holiday period, but the blogosphere never stops reporting….