Technology makes us all Menckens

As with vampires, animal rights activists may only enter a property if they are invited. And like vampires, animal rights activists must weave a deception to gain that invitation. The usual method that animal rights activist employ to seduce this invitation is to pose as a job applicant. Once on the farm, the activists will use a small camera to record what they decide is animal abuse or what might be edited into appearing as animal abuse. Idaho’s farmers were sufficiently fearful of seeing their operations highlighted on the evening news that they convinced the Legislature to pass a clearly unconstitutional law that imposed criminal penalties on whoever did that sort of thing. Surely, many of those legislators knew that the law would never survive judicial scrutiny, but they had well-healed constituents to mollify and passed the law that came to be known as “Ag Gag.” And although the targets suffer discomfiture, the fact remains that these rogue, undercover sting operations have come to serve a useful purpose in our society. Small cameras, cell phones and the Internet allow anyone to act as a citizen journalist. H. L. Mencken viewed conscience in the most cynical sense when he claimed that “conscience is the little voice that tells you that someone might be looking”/ Michael Costello , Lewiston Tribune. More here .

Question: Have you heard of the renown early-20th century journalist H.L. Mencken?