Periodically I spend a small amount of time on the influence of media on historical events, and media controversy through time.  We compare Civil War media controversy to that of others wars and look at the impact of freedom of information and the expansion of media into war zones.  (I guess I spend more time on it than I thought.)  I am interested in the impact of journalistic freedom on history and in the future.  (I already know I am a little geeky so no need to mention it in the comments.  However, I read your blogs and you people aren’t geek free.)

Catalyst for this post? I checked my flock feeds before turning in and this headline caught my eye:

NYPD Eyes Disrupting Cell Phones in Event of Terrorist Attack

The New York Police Department is training for new threats in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, Commissioner Raymond Kelly is set to tell a Senate committee Thursday.

The New York Police Department is looking for ways to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among terrorists in the event of another terror attack in New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says.

The need to disrupt communications is one of several conclusions that the NYPD has drawn from studying the November attack in Mumbai, India, a three-day rampage by machine gun and grenade-wielding Islamic militants in which at least 165 people were killed and 304 were wounded.

Really? Why don’t we just ask the terrorist about the best way to hinder their next attack? Why do we report on things that we are looking at for keeping our nation safe? This is rather minor maybe, but it just does not make sense to me. Journalistic freedom is one thing, but are we going to get to a point where journalists can report EVERYTHING? Are we already there?