Posted on 10/11/2013 6:13:56 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
The U.S. government's aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers, according to a report released Thursday on U.S. press freedoms under the Obama administration.
The Committee to Protect Journalists conducted its first examination of U.S. press freedoms amid the Obama administration's unprecedented number of prosecutions of government sources and seizures of journalists' records. Usually the group focuses on advocating for press freedoms abroad.
Leonard Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Washington Post, wrote the 30-page analysis entitled "The Obama Administration and the Press." The report notes President Barack Obama came into office pledging an open, transparent government after criticizing the Bush administration's secrecy, "but he has fallen short of his promise."
"In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press," wrote Downie, now a journalism professor at Arizona State University. "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."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I do not have enough information to judge the claim in this article. Is this group only looking at the press—or does it count Julian Assange’s publicizing of classified material and the efforts to arrest him as evidence of the press being inhibited? Because if they are basing this on the Wikileaks events, this group has not made its case at all.
“Journalists” are serving as the propaganda arm of the democrips party, so this sort of whine is absurd on the face of it. But then the sheeple have been so thoroughly dumbed down that most probably believe the poor journalists are intimidated by their little bastard god-man.
I just read the full article. While it does not mention Julian Assange, it does discuss people who have “leaked” national security information to the press.
Sorry, they will get no sympathy from me for that. Journalists know durned well that there are public affairs offices that they can contact for information. Some of them are scum that will resort to extraordinary measures just to get a story that no one else has.
Hmm, does my low opinion of journalists show, here?
Itt has brought a chilling effect to the journalists who are now room temperature, that’s for sure.
Like it or not, it is the press job to publish *all* information it gets. Blame the leakers, but not the press publishing leaks.
It is not the job of the press to protect national secrets, political careers, or whatever.
Journalists will do just about anything to get an “inside” story. Even though they know they are supposed to contact the Public Affairs Office (PAO) for information, journalists frequently call people whom they think will know something and start asking questions. Journalists are aware that people can get in a lot of trouble for answering—they just don’t care. I have frequently given out the PAO phone number and deleted emails asking me to be a subject matter expert for a press organization. My opinion of journalists is at about the same level as my opinion of leftist politicians.
Yes, by all means; Obama hates right-wing journalists, and will not tolerate their presence.
Only those who actively contribute to the Hussein hagiography are allowed in The Presence.
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