BDN interviews Socolow about journalist’s actions in standoff

The Bangor Daily News interviewed Michael Socolow about whether a journalist should have handed his cellphone to a police officer when the perpetrator of an armed standoff in Livermore Falls called him, particularly “without a warrant or other legal means of compulsion.” “Reporters should never simply turn over their reporting tools, notes and other materials to the government without very good cause and consideration, because they have been given constitutional rights to protect the public’s access to that information,” said the associate professor of communication and journalism and director of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center. The Associated Press cited the BDN interview in its reporting. ABC News, The Portland Press Herald, U.S. News & World Report, Masslive and WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania, shared the AP report.