It's an open question why everyone is even going to the Olympics in Beijing next month, given that China kinda sorta seems to have maybe accidentally released a deadly virus upon the world from one of its shoddy low-security superlabs.

Nevertheless, we're all going there. And journalists, for one, are prepping for it:

Journalists covering the Winter Olympics next month say they'll do their work in Beijing on brand-new cellphones and laptops. When the games are over, they'll simply leave them behind or throw them away.

The reason: Reporters are concerned that any devices they use there could become infected with tracking software, enabling Chinese authorities to spy on their contents. Hence, the use of "burner" phones and computers.

Man, I would love to see the scene at Beijing Daxing International Airport after the last torch is put out:

Seriously, though... why are we sending journalists there? Even the journalists are freaked out by it!

The Committee to Protect Journalists cast the situation in Orwellian terms. "Assume your hotel room is under surveillance," the New York-based advocacy group warned in a "safety advisory" last week. "Assume that everything you do online will be monitored. Any call made using a hotel landline or cell phone is not encrypted and can be intercepted. ... Any conversation you have in your hotel room may be subject to eavesdropping."

If I were a sports writer, I'd probably kindly request to stay home and cover the local high school basketball playoffs rather than the skiing competition in a lunatic Communist dictatorship.

Anyway, journalists, don't forget to stomp on your burner phone before you board your plane!

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