• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 2, 2006

Just in time for "M:I:III," reporters who review and report on television will have to act like agents after receiving DVDs of TV shows.

We are now told to destroy them after watching them.

Fox, in a process to hinder piracy and illegal uploading to the Internet of shows yet to be seen on traditional TV, has toughened its approach with the press. New warnings from the network tell reporters to keep review screeners off the Internet or risk legal action.

So the network says reporters should take a pair of scissors to the DVD and cut it up after watching it.

You would think national security is at stake--that governmental secrets could be leaked; that someone could get the formula for nuclear fuel; that we could finally figure out why audiences in droves need to see Tom Cruise in movie theaters.

No, it's none of that. It's just Fox warning reporters to keep episodes of TV shows off the Internet. Of course, given the current state of the market, Fox will no doubt put all its TV shows on the Internet in some form.

So what's the damage here? Review screeners have regularly come with warning for years, with messages displayed on the video throughout a particular episode. But Fox, like any video content owner, wants to be in control--if not hip.

The flood of new network-driven Internet/digital programming deals are part piracy protection, part money maker, and part coolness generator. Traditional TV is so yesterday.

Now, networks make reporters part of the process--except, unlike agents in the original TV show, "Mission Impossible," we don't have to burn up the audiotape.

We reporters are the keepers of the TV secrets. It's a life-or-death situation. Our jobs are so important to the creative security of the American people.

It's a mission we choose to accept.