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A renowned freelance journalist has been indicted by federal prosecutors who have accused him of accessing unbroadcast video footage from Fox News and other media outlets by illegal means. In fact, one of the main pundits the freelancer is accused of exposing is none other than former Fox News host and semi-professional white nationalist pontificator Tucker Carlson.
According to the Washington Post, Tim Burke, a former employee of the Daily Beast and Deadspin, has been indicted on 14 criminal counts, including conspiracy and wiretapping, for allegedly tapping into a streaming feed that allowed him to obtain unaired footage from Carlson’s show, which he was fired from last year, and that of other TV and media personalities.
It’s unclear if Carlson is in any way cooperating in Burke’s prosecution, but he probably didn’t appreciate the journalist leaking footage of his infamous interview with Ye aka Kanye West, whom Carlson was trying to present as less bigoted and unhinged than, well, your average Fox News host, for example.
From the Post:
Vice and Media Matters later published some of the footage obtained by Burke, including outtakes from an interview with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, making antisemitic remarks and rambling about “fake children” living in his home — scenes that undermined Carlson’s on-air attempts to present the MAGA-friendly star as thoughtful and levelheaded.
According to the indictment and a statement from the company, the footage came from LiveU, a streaming service used by media outlets to share video across their organizations. After the FBI raided Burke’s Tampa home and seized his equipment in May, he explained in a court filing how he accessed the footage in an attempt to get his equipment back.
So, now, the lingering question is: Did Burke actually do anything illegal? According to his attorneys, all Burke did was access publicly available login credentials to access LiveU’s feed, which he did after a “confidential source” showed him how.
“He merely found something newsworthy on a publicly accessible site,” his lawyers stated in a court filing.
“The facts of this case will demonstrate that there was, in fact, no hacking whatsoever,” the statement reads.
Burke generally said the same thing last August, telling the Post that the login info he used came from “demo credentials that were published publicly.”
But prosecutors insist that Burke broke the law with the help of an unnamed co-conspirator by using “compromised credentials” to access computers without authorization, and for what it’s worth, LiveU also described Burke’s alleged actions as an “event of unauthorized access” that it has invested “significant resources” to prevent from happening again. The company also told the Post that it is cooperating in the investigation against Burke.
Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told the Post that the prosecution against Burke sets a bad precedent that threatens journalists’ ability to work freely.
“It really seems a matter of going after a journalist for doing their job too well, being too computer-savvy,” Stern said.
