Honest and Open, Obama Administration Tightens Screws On Media

Political Realities ^ | 10/11/13 | LD Jackson

[LD Jackson]

One would think reports like this would be more than a worrisome to any reporter who prides themselves on even making a moderate attempt to report the truth. When President Obama first took office, he made the following claim. We were told that his administration would be the most honest and open presidency in modern American history. He made that statement in response to what he felt was far too much secrecy from the Bush administration. During his first four plus years in office, I wonder how Obama is doing with making good on that claim. My impression is not so well.

Consider this for a moment. If memory serves me correctly, I believe Fast and Furious is the first major scandal to come out of the honest and open Obama administration. In response to questions from Congress about that fiasco, President Obama claimed executive privilege, at the request of its most honorable Attorney General, Eric Holder. As a result, the family of Brian Terry may never know the full story of how and why he was killed while serving in the Border Patrol. Doing the right thing seems to have taken a back seat to covering the tracks of the officials of the Obama administration who allowed the guns to walk into Mexico and later come back to haunt them in the death of Brian Terry, as well as several Mexican citizens.

Fast and Furious was just the beginning. We all know what happened in Benghazi, or not! It still troubles me that the Obama administration is so secretive about how that disaster was allowed to happen. Hillary Clinton says it makes no difference, but I'm not convinced. Four of our people died and the Obama administration has made a concerted effort to make sure the families of those men are kept in the dark about what happened that night in Benghazi. Along with the rest of America, they appear to be doomed to never learn the truth. As for what President Obama was really doing that night, well that appears to be a very closely guarded secret.

What about the IRS targeting the conservative groups that have been a thorn in the side of the Obama administration. White House visitor logs were kept secret and several IRS officials have refused to answer the questions being asked of them by Congress. They plead their 5th Amendment rights, all while claiming they have done nothing wrong. The only real reason to do that is if they have something to hide. More secrecy from the most honest and open administration in modern American history.

But wait, we aren't through yet. One reason the Obama administration has been able to muddle its way through these scandals is the lack of coverage from the mainstream media. Many of us have complained about that lack of real reporting from the media, but maybe they have their reasons. Yes, they are in bed with Obama, but he hasn't been the most comfortable of bed partners. The media may double as his adoring fan base, but that hasn't kept Obama from going after them for the stories they have managed to report on.

Fox News - 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."

Downie interviewed numerous reporters and editors, including a top editor at The Associated Press, following revelations this year that the government secretly seized records for telephone lines and switchboards used by more than 100 AP journalists. Downie also interviewed journalists whose sources have been prosecuted on felony charges.

Those suspected of discussing classified information are increasingly subject to investigation, lie-detector tests, scrutiny of telephone and email records and now surveillance by co-workers under a new "Insider Threat Program" that has been implemented in every agency.

"There's no question that sources are looking over their shoulders," Michael Oreskes, the AP's senior managing editor, told Downie. "Sources are more jittery and more standoffish, not just in national security reporting. A lot of skittishness is at the more routine level. The Obama administration has been extremely controlling and extremely resistant to journalistic intervention."

We should all be asking this question. With the media planted so firmly in Obama's back pocket, why would he be so determined to push that relationship by punishing them for the stories they do write? If you stop and think, it's simple. What the Obama administration is looking for is complete and total control of their environment. The more they control, the better they can manipulate the information the average American citizen is receiving in their email inbox, in their Twitter stream, on their Facebook page, or on the television.

The most honest and open administration in the history of America? Not so much.

[Doogle]

transparency...FAIL

[AlexW]

As I have posted many times, the Communist know that the keys to the kingdom are the media and the educational systems.
FOX may be the closest to “fair and balanced”, but I call them Marxist lite. As for the educational systems, K thru grad school, it is a lost cause.

[American Constitutionalist]

The devil.

[BlessedBeGod]

It started during his first campaign:

Obama Campaign Confronts WGN Radio (Directs ObamaNazis to Target Stanley Kurtz Interview Tonight)

[SunkenCiv]

This slide toward a single party state is in part the consequence of only having an adversarial media when one particular party is in office. Thanks LD Jackson.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/leonarddownie/index

[Recompennation]

Yes the lap dog media is covering for him.
The local NBC affiliate said this morning that local restaurant and historic mill on govt land would reopen this morning “inspite” of the shut down. They quoted the private owner but did not allow his point of view to air. These liberal fools think every body shoud have this pResidents back

[ronnie raygun]

The media has also blacked out black on white crime across America for the white on black crime that opens the door to the racism agenda

[MuttTheHoople]

The Leftist Regressive Media WANTED this guy and his cabal...just like idealistic Communists wanted Stalin, Mao, and Castro. Just like the idealists found out, Communists always eat their young.

[MuttTheHoople]

The devil

I disagree. Obama isn't anti-Christ. Being anti-Christ requires a work ethic.

[Venturer]

Joseph Goebels would have loved our media.

[Mouton]

“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...”

I would leave it as the most aggressive, period. This is aided by the press who basically asks no questions. If that band of hyina’s that was attacking Nixon asked a third of the probing questions they asked during “watergate”, Obongo would be on his way out of town on a rail by now.

[sr4402]

Yes the lap dog media is covering for him.

They are afraid of being called 'racists'. by Al Sharpton and his ilk.

[IncPen]

They laughed at us when we warned them.

[spokeshave]

As a result, the family of Brian Terry may never know the full story of how and why he was killed

...and Jamie Zapata....

[PoloSec]

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.

Vladimir Lenin

[Mark17]

They laughed at us when we warned them.

Yes, they did. What I am wondering, is this, will there even be an election in 2016? I am so cynical, that I will believe it when I see it.

[MasterGunner01]

Obama and the Donkeys have 99% of the MSM willingly doing the regime’s propaganda. Unlike some “journalist” who have to be coerced to do the tyrant’s bidding, the American media willingly lines up and volunteers. They fall all over themselves trying to outdo each other at being the most obsequious propagandists.

[MasterGunner01]

Obama and the Donkeys have 99% of the MSM willingly doing the regime’s propaganda. Unlike some “journalist” who have to be coerced to do the tyrant’s bidding, the American media willingly lines up and volunteers. They fall all over themselves trying to outdo each other at being the most obsequious propagandists.

[DNME]

After The Won’s non-confrontational presser the other day, somebody noted that any reporter who asked a “real” question, or Heaven forbid a tough one, would never be allowed back or called upon again.

Good, that’s exactly why they SHOULD ask such questions! If exclusion or shunning are the penalties, then the regime has already lost.

(Sorry, but I still believe there is some integrity left in most reporters. Darth Vader was redeemed and they said that was impossible, too!)

The more reporters they shun/exclude, the fewer there will be left to carry their water. The sight of Obummer addressing only two reporters at a presser would just be too damaging and too hilarious to allow.

Ask the tough questions, reporters. Get in front of this conservative wave now, while you still can.