Is Obama at war with journalists?

[limpyhobbler]

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush's former spokesman Ari Fleischer doesn't agree with the Obama administration very often. But when it comes to the Justice Department's war on leaks of classified information, he's on the same page.

"Frankly, I think the White House has given the right answers and best answers," Fleischer says of Obama spokesman Jay Carney's defense of two ongoing leak investigations. "The problem is the answers that Jay is giving are ones that the White House press corps doesn't want to hear."

Reporters who have battled with both Republican and Democratic administrations on matters of government secrecy don't see it that way. In the wake of the Justice Department's actions, President Obama finds himself battling charges that his administration has effectively launched a war on journalists.

"There's a red line that no other administration has crossed before that the Obama administration has blown right past,'' says Josh Meyer, a former national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times and co-author of a book on the hunt for the architect of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/27/obama-war-media-leaks/2358059/



Bush's press secretary supports Obama's aggressive crackdown on the press...Sad but not really surprising.

[JaneyVee]

1. Ari would agree because Bush regime went after journalists & news organizations relentlessly.

[emulatorloo]

2. No, journalists are at war w Obama

They amplify and promote every GOP talking point and endlessly push fake GOP "scandals".

[Hekate]

3. ^^^^THIS^^^^

GMTA

[Cali_Democrat]

4. I think the Department of Justice is at war with leaks and rightly so

If that classified information is given to journalists...we have to know about it. We have to know who has received this classified information, how far it goes and how it has compromised national security.

[moondust]

5. Information Age on steroids.

These days leaking could be quite easy given the many communication channels available to everyone, and if not checked could rapidly spin out of control especially if a Wikileaks or a news organization hungry for a scoop, for example, is paying good money for leaks. Plus the intelligence bureaucracy has grown wildly since 9/11, leading to mountains of classified information.

I can understand the extra vigilance and zealous determination to keep it in check, understanding that there may be an occasional overreach.

[ucrdem]

6. " There's a red line"

Freudian slip?

[sigmasix]

7. what journalists?

Journalism is dead and buried in America. What we have are corporate meme promulgators that employ entertainers that disguise themselves as journalists. Since the scotus decided that news providers are not required to tell the truth, why should "journalism" be afforded a special place in America's ongoing struggle to improve our democracy? The owners of our news media have completely disavowed thier media machines of any responsibility to the American people and explain this away by claiming that the market for news should be ruled by profit margin concerns, instead of a well educated and cohesive electorate.
The whole reason for the special treatment of news media was the understanding that America's news media could not be monopolized, as long as we have a healthy regulatory regime. There is no argument that rebuts the fact that our news, for the most part, is owned by the same groups that adhere to the "for profit" model- some news media owners like Rupert Murdoch have tapped into the partisan reactionary message masters and the hate-inspired historical revisionism they call "news".

American "news" journalism changed into something that isnt journalism; why is everyone pretending to be outraged by the notion that "journalists shouldn't have access to top secret materials? Trust is earned and American "journalists" haven't done anything to earn our trust since watergate.

[Skittles]

8. I AGREE WITH THIS ASSESSMENT

YES INDEED

[sigmasix]

9. what journalists? where?

Journalism is dead and buried in America. What we have are corporate meme promulgators that employ entertainers that disguise themselves as journalists. Since the scotus decided that news providers are not required to tell the truth, why should "journalism" be afforded a special place in America's ongoing struggle to improve our democracy? The owners of our news media have completely disavowed thier media machines of any responsibility to the American people and explain this away by claiming that the market for news should be ruled by profit margin concerns, instead of a well educated and cohesive electorate.
The whole reason for the special treatment of news media was the understanding that America's news media could not be monopolized, as long as we have a healthy regulatory regime. There is no argument that rebuts the fact that our news, for the most part, is owned by the same groups that adhere to the "for profit" model- some news media owners like Rupert Murdoch have tapped into the partisan reactionary message masters and the hate-inspired historical revisionism they call "news".

American "news" journalism changed into something that isnt journalism; why is everyone pretending to be outraged by the notion that "journalists shouldn't have access to top secret materials? Trust is earned and American "journalists" haven't done anything to earn our trust since watergate. It is American right wing and for profit "news" organizations that declared war on this president on the 1st day of his 1st term and they havent got tired of it- they are just getting started.

Sometimes I think that fox "news" pundits could eat a living human baby, live on prime time and the same 32% of the population that includes teabaggers would find a way to blame libruls and orbama. This number is an indictment of American "News" media- right wing media inparticular- but they all employ the same "echoe-chamber tactics in attempting to reinforce newsworthiness and save money on salaries for real journalists.
-THIS is the media that we are suppposed to be protective of? Whatever happened to intelligence?