What the Kansas Newsroom Raid Reveals About Widespread Spying on the Press

When the entire Marion, Kansas, police department raided the small city’s only newsroom last week it drew national condemnation. At least 34 news organizations, including The New York Times, Associated Press, and CNN decried the attack on the Marion County Record as an attack on freedom of the press and the First Amendment.

Thankfully, newsroom raids are rare and constitutionally suspect in the U.S. But the alarming reality is that while newsroom raids may be rare in America, police surveillance of journalists is not.

From fake social media accounts to counter-terrorism databases, law enforcement agencies frequently use the sprawling surveillance systems that define American policing to track the press. And unlike with newsroom raids, the courts often never know.

Read more at The Daily Beast.