Categorically false. There were dozens upon dozens of peaceful protests across the country in the past weeks that were decidedly not branded as riots. Very few police departments have declared groupings as riots, fewer than ten. Orders of magnitude less than the amount of protests.
>This should be obvious, as they have allowed looting and rioting in instances, as well as curtailing and meaningfully impeding constitutionally protected protest activity.
This makes little sense and actually disproves your point? City councils and mayors oversee the police departments and tell them to stand down.
>When law enforcement is allowed to designate people or groups as rioters indiscriminately, and then brutalize them, then arrest them, it’s clear that your rights are being impinged.
So you just said they're not able to since in other areas they've been told to stand down and not enforce or designate anything. You can't have it both ways.
>and can do as much or more “journalism” on a Twitter account today than William Randolph Hearst could on a good day in 1898.[1][2]
>An interesting historical footnote from
Total non sequitur.
As for why everyone deserves the same protections that journalists do under the law, the same journalists being subpoenaed in OP are broadcasting citizen journalists’ content as well. We’re all journalists now.
Where did I leave my press pass? Oh, there it is.
An interesting historical footnote from [1]:
A leader of the Cuban rebels, Gen. Calixto García[3], gave Hearst a Cuban flag that had been riddled with bullets as a gift, in appreciation of Hearst's major role in Cuba's liberation.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calixto_Garc%C3%ADa