
Sanders Campaign Is Penalized for Clinton Data Breach - dantillberg
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/18/sanders-campaign-disciplined-for-breaching-clinton-data/
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mal-2
The Sanders campaign told the DNC months ago that they were noticing data they
shouldn't have access to. What a ridiculous farce of news coverage to frame
this as an intentional invasion by the Sanders campaign, warranting
discipline.

It is an outrage that the DNC would refuse access to crucial voter records
weeks before the first primary caucuses. This is interference in the
democratic process bordering on treasonous. The DNC leadership has reached a
new low in its attempts to stifle an open primary.

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mncolinlee
I'm not an expert on federal campaign law, only state level, but it's possible
this could also be considered a large in-kind campaign donation by the DNC.
Certainly, there are real dollar prices associated with access to NGP VAN's
databases and it seems very unlikely that the Sanders campaign got in for
free. I can't speak to the legalities of it, but a court could certainly treat
this as the DNC providing monetary aid to the Clinton campaign or even denying
pre-paid services to the Sanders campaign without just compensation.

When we were given discounts on campaign databases, our financial paperwork
was required to reflect them as donations.

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MrZongle2
I can't help but think that this has less to do with Sanders' team exploiting
a software vulnerability and more with the DNC standing behind the
establishment-approved candidate (Clinton).

The fact that the party's debate schedule seems at odds with a prime time
schedule doesn't help this perception.

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makecheck
I wonder if a story like this would still be considered newsworthy if they
were forced to make all statements generic, such as "Political Campaign
Staffer Disciplined for Accessing Another Campaign's Data".

If not, then why report it?

If still worth reporting, and if people were forced to think on the
information only in the generic terms available ("how should we act upon this
and other data breaches?", "does it matter if some campaign has access to
another campaign's information within the same party?", etc.), then what would
come of it?

We should hope for just enough information to understand what happens in the
world but not so much information that emotions and irrelevant details take
over the discussion.

