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Barack Obama: The greatest threat to press freedom in a generation
Flopping Aces ^ | 03-26-14 | DrJohn

Posted on 03/26/2014 10:32:29 AM PDT by Starman417

Freedom-of-press

"First he came for the whistleblowers and I didn't speak up because I was a liberal...."

A conference called "Sources and Secrets" was held a few days ago at the Times Center in New York. The conference is described as "A conference on the press, government and national security." It's supported largely by left wing organizations and news outlets. At the meeting James Risen of the NY Times expressed an interesting opinion:

New York Times reporter James Risen, who is fighting an order that he testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer accused of leaking information to him, opened the conference earlier by saying the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” The administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” Risen said, to “create a path for accepted reporting.” Anyone journalist who exceeds those parameters, Risen said, “will be punished.”

And he went on to this:

The administration’s aggressive prosecutions have created “a de facto Official Secrets Act,” Risen said, and the media has been “too timid” in responding.

The media rolled over for Barack Obama long ago for two reasons. One, he is a democrat and two, because he is black. Obama has seized on that to abuse the power of his office.

What followed in the conference becomes amusing. Andrew Beaujon snarkily notes:

...Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak, who announced that if he weren’t a paragon of journalistic detachment, he’d say “the persecution of James Risen is a scandal.”

Attorney Laura Handman observed that

...the U.S. Department of Justice’s new guidelines for accessing journalists’ records carve out a big space for the government to decide what constitutes “ordinary newsgathering.”

No sh*t.

Then the far left wing Obama water carrier Jeffrey Toobin sprang into action to defend his idol. He suggested that certain reporters, like Fox News reporters (like James Rosen) ought to be prosecuted. Toobin made no mention of harassing the parents of reporters.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has long wanted to crush those speaking freely of liberals, repeated her desire to limit who can be considered a journalist and without a doubt to destroy bloggers whose words displease her.

Liberals tend to dismiss inappropriate actions on the part of democrats right up until the monster comes for them. Now it has, but they can't say they weren't warned.

In 2011 Jane Mayer wrote:

(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: abuseofpower; cia; ciaofficer; diannefeinstein; iran; iranianwmd; jamesrisen; jeffreyasterling; jeffreysterling; leakers; leaks; merlin; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; nuclearproliferation; obama; operationmerlin; opmerlin; press; proliferation; shieldlaw; waronbloggers

1 posted on 03/26/2014 10:32:29 AM PDT by Starman417
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To: Starman417

What is the period of a “generation”?


2 posted on 03/26/2014 10:34:02 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Paladin2

Wait until the Republicans take back the executive and legislative and get revenge...

Wait..what?

Never mind.


3 posted on 03/26/2014 10:55:50 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz ("Heck of a reset there, Hillary")
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To: EQAndyBuzz
Mitch is such a leader.

He will get this straightened out next year....

4 posted on 03/26/2014 10:57:51 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Starman417
The media is angling for a law by Congress that would protect their "sources", which really means that they want to be able to attack conservatives without having to prove the validity of those attacks, i.e. hide their sources (or making things up). The Dem Senate is more than happy to do this for them, but hopefully the House will ignore this push. So yes, they are saying bad things about Obama, but only to serve an end.
5 posted on 03/26/2014 11:11:45 AM PDT by Major Matt Mason ("Journalism is dead. All news is suspect." - Noamie)
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To: Paladin2
What is the period of a “generation”?

I think is around 20 presidents.

6 posted on 03/26/2014 11:13:20 AM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: bigheadfred

20 years


7 posted on 03/26/2014 11:27:34 AM PDT by DownInFlames
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To: Paladin2

Since Clinton was President.


8 posted on 03/26/2014 11:59:12 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Starman417
Barack Obama: The greatest threat to press freedom in a generation history
9 posted on 03/26/2014 12:06:25 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: DownInFlames

Right. So in the last 20 years obama is worse than the others. And don’t get me wrong obama is a puke. But the horse left the barn before he got on the stage.


10 posted on 03/26/2014 4:52:59 PM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: bigheadfred

No arguement here. My vote is w Wilson. Lincoln is a close 2nd.


11 posted on 03/27/2014 6:00:49 AM PDT by DownInFlames
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