Declan McCullagh is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and columnist

Columnist

A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

 for CBSNews.com

CBS News

CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...

. He specializes in computer security

Computer security

Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...

 and privacy

Data privacy

Information privacy, or data privacy is the relationship between collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, and the legal and political issues surrounding them....

 issues. He is notable, among other things, for his early involvement with the media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

 interpretation of U.S. presidential candidate

Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000

Al Gore, the 45th Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Carthage, Tennessee on June 16, 1999. Gore became the nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2000 presidential election on August 17, 2000...

 Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

." McCullagh himself once claimed that "If it's true that Al Gore created the Internet, then I created the 'Al Gore created the Internet' story."

In 2009, McCullagh turned his journalistic focus to the issue of climate change

Global warming controversy

Global warming controversy refers to a variety of disputes, significantly more pronounced in the popular media than in the scientific literature, regarding the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming...

.

In an article in The Register

The Register

The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...

, McCullagh was once described by fellow technical journalist Andrew Orlowski

Andrew Orlowski

Andrew Orlowski is a British columnist for the online IT news and opinion website The Register.-Early career:In 1992, Orlowski started an alternative newspaper in Manchester, England called Badpress. He has also written for Private Eye magazine...

 as a, "draw by crayon libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

," and has written in defense of libertarianism frequently. He began writing weekly columns for CBSnews.com on economic commentary entitled Other People's Money upon CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...

's acquisition of CNET Networks. In August 2009, McCullagh renamed his column to Taking Liberties, which focuses on "individual rights

Individual rights

Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof...

 and liberties, including both civil and economic

Economic freedom

Economic freedom is a term used in economic and policy debates. As with freedom generally, there are various definitions, but no universally accepted concept of economic freedom...

 liberties." He also participated and won $100,000 on the California Lottery's Make Me a Millionaire

Make Me a Millionaire

Make Me a Millionaire is the second television game show of the California Lottery, having replaced The Big Spin on January 17, 2009. Originally contracted for a four-year run, the Lottery cancelled the show after eighteen months, with its last episode telecast on July 3, 2010...

game show in episode 2002.

External links

• Official website
• Taking Liberties, columns by McCullagh (Discontinued)
• Other People's Money, columns by McCullagh (Discontinued)
• CNET News, blog entries and podcast episodes by McCullagh
• Politech, mailing list founded by McCullagh