The American Situation

May 22, 2013

Obama’s war on press freedom

Recent Department of Justice (DOJ) actions against two media organizations show that the Obama administration is willing to trample over press freedom and the First Amendment rights of journalists. These are serious attacks on the media to investigate freely, and for us to read what we want about the government. They go well beyond where previous administrations dared to tread, including the much-criticized Bush White House. James Goodale, a First Amendment lawyer who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, says  “President Obama will surely pass President Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom.”

First, it was revealed that the DOJ filed a secret subpoena and obtained two months of phone records – including home phones and cell phones - from Associated Press (AP) reporters and editors without notifying them.  The DOJ was apparently seeking to identify the person who leaked information about a terror plot in Yemen that was foiled by the CIA.

Next, on Monday we learned that DOJ investigated James Rosen, Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, for a 2009 article about North Korea. The government was using Rosen to build a case against State Department contractor Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, who allegedly told Rosen that North Korea might respond to UN sanctions with more nuclear tests. The DOJ tracked Rosen’s movements and contacts, and obtained a warrant to search his personal email account, as well as accessing records of calls to and from a phone number at Fox News Channel.  Most chillingly, in the request to a federal judge for permission to access Mr. Rosen’s emails, the DOJ argued that “There is probable cause to believe that the Reporter [Rosen] has committed or is committing a violation” of the Espionage Act of 1917, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”  Although Rosen was not charged, the implication was that he was acting as a criminal “co-conspirator” of a spy ring – for simply asking questions and writing about what he learned.

The background to the stories is that the DOJ  has pursued leak investigations more aggressively than others before it. To give an idea of how remarkable the Obama administration’s campaign against leaks has been: between the Espionage Act’s introduction in 1917 and the end of the George W. Bush administration, the Act had been invoked only three times, while the Obama administration has already indicted six officials under the Act.

There are many problems with the administration’s heavy-handed approach. It is sweeping in scope, a “fishing expedition” as they say, that can reveal private information about hundreds if not thousands of people. Team Obama is clearly trying to scare any would-be whistle-blowers. Lucy Dalglish, dean of journalism school at the University of Maryland, says: “The message is loud and clear that if you work for the federal government and talk to a reporter that we will find you.” It is hard to imagine doing investigative reporting about government itself without having any sources. So much for the Transparency President. Continue reading→

0 Comments

February 11, 2013

Israel-bashers: masters of the double standard

Radicals who protest against the censorship of anti-Israel academics cheer with hypocritical glee when Israeli academics are banned.

Read my spiked article in full here.

0 Comments