It is completely inappropriate for an employer to lay off a reporter and take the very unusual step of retaining and searching the reporter’s files, inclusive of confidential source identification and information. From a First Amendment standpoint, a media corporation with a commitment to journalism calling a reporter’s research and confidential source reporting “proprietary information” is both shocking and absurd.
If this is part of her usual vocation and not unique to her current/past employer, then they both have a right to her work product
“It is completely inappropriate for an employer to lay off a reporter and take the very unusual step of retaining and searching the reporter’s files, inclusive of confidential source identification and information.”
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Yes it is, but we can’t expect the Cabal to play by the rules.
Hopefully she was smart enough to see this kind of thing coming and to have backups.