Posted on 04/13/2014 4:37:42 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
In 2007, the Frontline documentary "News War" featured a series of interviews with Bill Keller, then the executive editor of Takeaway partner The New York Times. Frontline host Lowell Bergman asked Keller about freedom of the press under the Bush Administration.
"We have an administration that is more secretive and more hostile to the operations of the press probably than any since the Nixon administration," Keller replied.
As Bergman noted in the documentary, many prominent journalists and news organizations agreed with Keller. They may have even looked forward to the Obama years, hoping the new administration would have a change of heart.
Jill Abramson succeeded Keller as executive editor in July 2011, in the midst of the Obama era. She tells Takeaway host John Hockenberry that the White House's relationship with the press has only deteriorated.
"The Obama years are a benchmark for a new level of secrecy and control," says Abramson. "It's created quite a challenging atmosphere for The New York Times, and for some of the best reporters in my newsroom who cover national security issues in Washington."
Abramson says that the administration's criminal leak investigations have presented large obstacles to news coverage.
"There have been seven of them, and one of them right now threatens my colleague James Risen who has been subpoenaed in one of these cases," she says. "Collectively, they have really, I think, put a chill on reporting about national security issues in Washington."
(Excerpt) Read more at thetakeaway.org ...
All it takes is one to crack and the damn dam will burst... But does any news corp have the cajones? I doubt it... For just like cnn and the murderous saddam regime, news corporations will overlook the most heinous of actions to keep their connections to power.
News outlets should start hammering the little things, like why the secrecy about the original birth certificate, fast and furious, and benghazi, and leaks will flood their way.
If not, we are doomed.
A free press is the watchdog of the world.
Teeman
“Tiptoeing” ??
I’d have said “storm trooping”
The story is a good start, but it is the one doing the tiptoeing.
"I think, in a back door way using an obscure provision of an old law, they are tip-toeing close to things that, here in the United States, we've never had," says Abramson.
Tell it to Linda Tripp, Jill! She tried to warn you about creeping totalitarianism back during the Clinton years but you wasted time destroying her personally.
What's weird about this is that both James RISEN of The New York Times and James ROSEN of Fox News Network have been targeted by the administration regarding supposed security leaks.
Well...there is tiptoeing...
And then there is tiptoeing...
That being said, if by any chance a Republican is elected president in 2016, Investigative Journalism will be fastest growing job in America. There will be tremendous outrage at how evil, corrupt, stupid, hypocritical and secretive the Republican president is. Worst president ever, from day one. Clearly should be impeached for crimes against humanity and unConstitutional seizure of power.
You can see it coming a mile away.
The press has lost its usefulness to the WH and the Prez is leaving them in the dirt faster than George Clooney moves from one woman to the next. I think its time for some good ol’ investigative journalism...: )
Embrace the suck.
challenging atmosphere for The New York Times, and for some of the best reporters in my newsroom who cover national security issues in Washington.”
When the commie journalists are bellyaching there’s a problem, I have an issue with “best reporters in the news room” comment, no not ever!
Oh, they have the cajones, all right. They just don't have any interest. Wrong party in the WH. Elect a Republican and every attempt to deny information will again be a 24/7 firestorm and if necessary litigated to the Supreme Court.
The press is no longer a watchdog. It is a Praetorian Guard.
I don’t understand the secrecy. These people are PROUD of what they are doing...so why deny and hide? Why don’t Democrats just state they are Socialists? Why do they deny all this stuff they are so proud of supporting? Obamacare is socialized (government controlled) health care....so SAY IT if you support it. Why the lies if they are so proud of what they’ve created? Why deny the IRS is targeting conservatives? Why hide that NSA is tracking every phone call...they built it, they should be proud of it. It isn’t like somebody could go to jail for doing these things (hasn’t and won’t happen). Why go to the trouble to do all this if you aren’t proud of it?
Better to say our free press was the watchdog of the world. The free press was the first thing to destroy under Obama, but you did not see it at the time.
Think about how the press used to be in America. Baby, it is gone!
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