Committee to Protect Journalists issues scathing report on Obama administration

Obama's anti-press measures 'are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration'

Glenn Greenwald

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...doms-obama

It's hardly news that the Obama administration is intensely and, in many respects, unprecedentedly hostile toward the news-gathering process. Even the most Obama-friendly journals have warned of what they call "Obama's war on whistleblowers". James Goodale, the former general counsel of the New York Times during its epic fights with the Nixon administration, recently observed that "President Obama wants to criminalize the reporting of national security information" and added: "President Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom."

Still, a new report released today by the highly respected Committee to Protect Journalists - its first-ever on press freedoms in the US - powerfully underscores just how extreme is the threat to press freedom posed by this administration. Written by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., the report offers a comprehensive survey of the multiple ways that the Obama presidency has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for journalists and sources alike, one that severely threatens the news-gathering process.

The first sentence: "In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press." Among the most shameful aspects of the Obama record:

Quote:Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations. Still more criminal investigations into leaks are under way. Reporters' phone logs and e-mails were secretly subpoenaed and seized by the Justice Department in two of the investigations, and a Fox News reporter was accused in an affidavit for one of those subpoenas of being 'an aider, abettor and/or conspirator' of an indicted leak defendant, exposing him to possible prosecution for doing his job as a journalist. In another leak case, a New York Times reporter has been ordered to testify against a defendant or go to jail.

It goes on to detail how NSA revelations have made journalists and source petrified even to speak with one another for fear they are being monitored:

Quote:'I worry now about calling somebody because the contact can be found out through a check of phone records or e-mails,' said veteran national security journalist R. Jeffrey Smith of the Center for Public Integrity, an influential nonprofit government accountability news organization in Washington. 'It leaves a digital trail that makes it easier for the government to monitor those contacts,' he said.

It quotes New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane as saying that sources are "scared to death." It quotes New York Times reporter David Sanger as saying that "this is the most closed, control freak administration I've ever covered." And it notes that New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan previously wrote that "it's turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press."

Based on all this, Downie himself concludes:

Quote:The administration's war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate. The 30 experienced Washington journalists at a variety of news organizations whom I interviewed for this report could not remember any precedent."

And this pernicious dynamic extends far beyond national security: "Ellen Weiss, Washington bureau chief for E.W. Scripps newspapers and stations, said 'the Obama administration is far worse than the Bush administration' in trying to thwart accountability reporting about government agencies." It identifies at least a dozen other long-time journalists making similar observations.

The report ends by noting the glaring irony that Obama aggressively campaigned on a pledge to usher in The Most Transparent Administration Ever. Instead, as the New Yorker's investigative reporter Jane Mayer recently said about the Obama administration's attacks: "It's a huge impediment to reporting, and so chilling isn't quite strong enough, it's more like freezing the whole process into a standstill."

The silence is deafening.

Most.

Transparent.

Administration.

Ever.

If and when the real story about this regime comes out concerning their illegal use of the IRS and the NSA, it will make Nixon look like a small time crook. The Obamabots continue to refuse to accept reality though.

History is not going to look kindly on Obama. And I don't think we will have to wait long for the effect. It will begin to kick in before he leaves office.

And I'm not just talking about the terrible economy, weak foreign policy and HC disaster.

All this Nixonian handling of the press, the NSA spying, using the IRS to attack all his political enemies during his reelection and afterwards, the cover ups, Benghazi, the lack of ANY real oversight or questions from the press because of total fear of the imperialist leader.

A lot of people are going to look back at this period in utter embarrassment. The press in particular.

I also think the press may get much tougher over all these issue in his last 2 years, harming Obama's approval numbers even more right at the end.

Obama, after reading this.

"Sir, I'd like to say that uh, the uh, well to answer your question, your uh, you're not being very factual sir, but uh, but just let me say that um, that your avatar leads me to believe, uh, that you're a racist sir. Thank you, next question please."

Darn, I didn't think that the Redskins logo in my avatar would cause me to be sent to the gulag...