Susie Cagle is an excellent writer and a superb cartoonist. I sincerely wish her every success in the new job she'll start next month writing and drawing news full time.

However, there are significant and troubling omissions from the story she tells in the video clip embedded in this article.

She claims the Alameda County District Attorney's office "holds people hostage in legal limbo" waiting out the statute of limitations on misdemeanor charges that the D.A. has neither pressed nor dropped. "They hold this over people's heads," Cagle charges, "so that they feel intimidated."

"So this is the traditional chilling effect," the interviewer mansplains, "that a government can sometimes put onto journalists to keep them from reporting."

Ms. Cagle nods in agreement and says, "Yeah!"

"This is certainly an example," the interviewer goes on, "of how local police with the local judicial system can circumvent your First Amendment rights."

Cagle again nods in agreement and says, "Uh-huh."

Yet she never contends that she herself was intimidated or that her two arrests deterred her from attending subsequent Occupy Oakland protests and reporting whatever she damn well pleased. If Cagle felt no such "chilling effect," this entire discussion is moot.

Secondly, Cagle states that when arrested at a riot in November 2011, she was working for four different media outlets, none of which the arresting officer had ever heard. She says she had a "press pass" (singular) without specifying which of her four employers issued it.

In this day and age, anyone with access to the Internet and a printer can download a template to fabricate a homemade "press pass," and many self-appointed citizen journalists do just that. They then wave these garbage credentials in a cop's face and expect to receive the red carpet treatment with unfettered access behind police lines. These are the phonies Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had in mind when she rightly referred in February 2012 to "fake media around Occupy."

Thirdly, the reason OPD officers were "puzzling" over Cagle's press pass at a riot in January 2012 was because, as she revealed on Twitter, it expired at the end of 2011. "It's expired, so you're not press tonight," she was told. Nevertheless, "A sgt finally let me go 'using discretion.'"

Finally, Cagle glosses over results of the complaint she filed with Oakland's Civilian Police Review Board for allegedly being wrongfully detained and arrested as a member of the press. After duly investigating her case, the CPRB found that either OPD's actions were "justified, lawful and proper" or there was not enough evidence to determine if the alleged misconduct occurred. "No good cause," the Board concluded, "is shown for further action."

Journalists have long been privileged in this country to sidestep the law during the course of practicing their profession. The question now is: should we likewise exempt anyone with a smartphone and Ustream account, or an even cheaper recording device, or for that matter a pad & pencil—as long as said lawbreaker claims to be a journalist?

It's a slippery slope.