Reporter James Risen…
…calls the Obama administration “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” The impetus for his statement was this situation:
…[Risen] is fighting an order that he testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer accused of leaking information to him, The administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” Risen said, to “create a path for accepted reporting.” Anyone journalist who exceeds those parameters, Risen said, “will be punished.”
The administration’s aggressive prosecutions have created “a de facto Official Secrets Act,” Risen said, and the media has been “too timid” in responding.
I submit that the Obama administration is not the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation. It is the press that is its own greatest enemy, not in a generation but in a century or more. The press has enabled and promoted nearly everything that Obama has done no matter how bad the violation, the lie, or the error. He is their creature and their creation, and they have reaped what they have sown. Unfortunately, the rest of us have reaped it too.
[NOTE: Perhaps the Obama administration is confusing James Risen with James Rosen?]
Perfectly stated.
Ah, yes, that would be Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT investigative reporter James Risen, who’s made quite a name for himself for numerous articles and 2 books on the CIA and America’s national security efforts under Bush. In fact, he’s the one who revealed the details about the very successful, secret program that tracked terrorist financing, despite Bush personally inviting his editor to the White House to request that they hold off on the story.
While I agree with him that the Obama administration’s behavior has been quite detrimental to freedom of the press, I’ll not be shedding any crocodile tears over his recent difficulty in getting information from CIA personnel who were more than happy to leak when it could damage Bush.
In other news: Sharyl Attkisson (Emmy-winning reporter who recently resigned from CBS after a long battle to get stories on the air) has started her own news site:
“Resisting undue corporate, political, and other special interests”
Pre-order the book:
“Stonewalled: My Fight Against Intimidation and Spin.”
March 25, 2015 NY Times reporter: “Obama administration is greatest enemy of press freedom” in a generation
March 23, 2014: I’m looking forward to asking questions of Mayor Bloomberg Friday as part of his Ringling College Library Association Town Hall speech and appearance in my home territory at the Sarasota Opera House.
See “Links of Interest” at her website.
http://sharylattkisson.com/home.html
No, the press won’t fully reap what they have sown (and richly deserve) until they meet the same fate that useful idiots do in every revolution: a bullet to the back of the head.
The press considers itself a class privileged to rule over American information.
What the Founding Fathers wanted was the press, the ability to publish, to be protected. Like arms. Not a “class” of people who were the only ones allowed to “publish”.
Lizzy:
Indeed. What seems to get a rise out of Risen is when he’s curtailed in some way in his effort to reveal US security secrets. That’s his main concern, not the rest of it.
Which is part of my point.
They hated Bush and love Obama. Yet in Risen’s case, which one respectfully requested he hold off a story (and took no action when he declined) and which one is compelling him to testify against his confidential source?
Risen and Lichtblau disclosed two successful programs, one that tracked suspicious communications from outside the country and another that tracked suspicious money transfers.
Title 18 Section 798 of the US Penal Code prohibits what they did. Here is a pertinent excerpt:
“(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information–
(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government;
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.” *
These guys got the Pulitzer.
*http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/798
Neo, I am not a lawyer, but I heard this section cited by Prof. John Eastman in congressional testimony. If any of your readers indicate that this statute does not apply I am happy to stand corrected.
I used to say that the media had voluntarily turned itself into Pravda for the democrats. Now I say they have turned themselves into Monica Lewinski. They are nothing but political whores and you know how whores are treated.
Ray…
Give that organ a cigar!
The Orcs of Mordor eating their own.
Anyone who works for the NYT deserves every bad thing that happens to them. Obama’s Injustice Department is going to go after it’s own lackeys eventually. That’s standard operating procedure. Good. May they all get locked up.
As for decent freedom loving Americans?
Risen isn’t one of them. Their script is not written yet. But Risen can go to you know where and no one will ever shed a tear.
Or “Saturn devouring his sons.” Remember the William Blake painting?
Oops! Goya, not Blake….
“It is the press that is its own greatest enemy, not in a generation but in a century or more”
Amen, neo. A *huge* proportion of the issues vexing us trace back to the MFM, including nearly everything having to do with Obama who they have failed to “vet” since he began running for POTUS in 2007. He never would have been nominated much less elected without the pointed refusal to report on his background. And I’m not talking about any “birther” stuff, or even Ayers/Wright but simply the fact that he was basically a Chicago machine hack pol with nearly zero substantive accomplishments.
FOAF…
I’m constantly surprised that he’s buried so many Democrat careers and still gets a pass.
Also, what kind of party leader sucks all of the funds out of the Democrat Party balloon?
The dunces still don’t comprehend that Barry is ten times as lethal to Democrats as he is to Republicans, and I’m not referring to this November 4th.
Lizzy, do people hate and lash out at their boss? Or do they find a weaker target to hate and lash out at?
It’s basic human psychology.
Risen is just another rising undead zombie horde. Pay no attention to the brain eating. We’ll clear it out with a nuclear sterilization plan.