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Members of the media routinely make the argument that they are different from the remainder of the public when it comes to free speech and campaign finance issues; we shouldn't be surprised when they take a similar view of access to information.

What's with the knee-jerk reaction where everything is "Orwellian" or "1984-like?" I actually think this kind of hyperbole is damaging because, when something actually is "Orwellian," no one's going to listen because we've all been inured to people throwing this word around like it's nothing.

When it comes to incidents like this I'm reminded of Hanlon's Razor more than anything from Orwell: "never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

This sounds more like gross incompetence than anything