James Risen is my hero

[malaise]

Thank you for exposing the mercenaries of war.

[sendero]

1. Obama...

... who assured us he was going to preside over a "transparent" government, is trying his level best to get him in jail.

I hope he fails.

[msanthrope]

3. Did you protest jailing Judith Miller? Same circumstances. nt

[Octafish]

6. Not even close.

Miller helped lie America into war.

Risen is helping America understand who the liars are.

[msanthrope]

7. Nonsense...Risen smeared Wen Ho Lee. Remember him? Nearly sent him to jail

for life...and at whose behest?

Come on Octafish....you remember the Wen Ho Lee scandal, right? James Risen carried water for the BFEE and now....he's a hero????

[Octafish]

9. You never mention that article's co-author, NYT reporter Jeff Gerth, msanthrope. Why?

Jeff Gerth, meet Judith Miller

Eric Boehlert
Media Matters, Column, May 30, 2007T

Isn't former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth writing the definitive book about Hillary Clinton sort of like Judith Miller deciding to write the definitive book about Iraq's WMDs? It just doesn't add up.

After all, both Gerth and Miller, former star reporters, are well known for the facts they got wrong, more so than the stories they got right. While Miller limited most of her damage to a single topic, Iraq, Gerth, by contrast, became a Zelig-like figure at the newspaper during the 1990s, appearing at every crossroads where The New York Times lost its newsroom composure, and uncorked dark, convoluted tales featuring the conniving Clintons at the heart of a would-be criminal enterprise.

Indeed, Gerth was at the center of a rather unfortunate period in the Times' history. It was pre-public editor, pre-bloggers, and pre-Media Matters for America. And it was a time when the paper's leadership seemed more concerned with protecting high-profile scandal stories -- propping them up, really -- than with being accurate and honest with its readers.

But that shoddy approach to journalism caught up with the Times in recent years, and the paper has suffered a series of credibility setbacks, particularly with its prewar reporting. If you don't think Gerth's corner-cutting contributed to the paper's troubles -- if you think ambitious insiders at the Times didn't take notice of Gerth's star run when he was lauded and rewarded for writing accusatory stories that couldn't withstand close scrutiny and often didn't even make sense -- then I don't think you understand how the Beltway media's star system works.

Meaning Judith Miller simply picked up where Jeff Gerth left off.

CONTINJUED...

http://mediamatters.org/research/2007/05/30/jeff-gerth-meet-judith-miller/138965

[riderinthestorm]

10. Judith Miller went to jail protecting Scooter Libby

Fitzgerald knew it.

Miller is scum and Risens case is nothing like hers yet msanthrope persists in trotting out this lame deflection every time.

[zentrum]

12. Miller took dictation from

.....liars putting us into war. NOT TRUTH TELLERS. She lied for liars. Not a whistle blower. Not a reporter. She was a water carrier.

Risen helped a whistle blower uncover governmental abuse of power.

What are you talking about?

[JDPriestly]

13. Judith Miller conspired to print and tell lies, to cover up government wrongdoing.

Judith Miller kept a secret to protect someone powerful who was trying to silence a truth-teller.

Risen is simply telling the truth.

To criticize Risen is to criticize someone for telling the truth.

To criticize Miller is to criticize someone who is protecting and promoting a network of liars.

[MannyGoldstein]

20. So your argument in a nutshell, is

that the Obama administration has secured twenty (or whatever) times more jail time for reporters than all previous presidents combined, because there's twenty times more illegal activity going on by reporters?

[tritsofme]

8. Holder has specifically said the DOJ will not seek to jail Risen.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/09/holder-no-jail-for-risen-194905.html

But you know...it's fun to vilify Obama...

[msanthrope]

2. Really, Malaise? The guy who smeared Wen Ho Lee...nearly putting him in jail for life?

James Risen did what Judith Miller went to jail for. He deserves equal treatment.

[JDPriestly]

15. But if the government had been open and honest about the conduct that Wen Ho Lee was

accused of, then Risen would not have had anything to smear Wen Ho Lee about.

The fundamental problem is the dishonesty and excessive secrecy of our government. Although in the case of a foreign national accused of stealing vital scientific secrets, perhaps the government secrecy is justified. Still, the excessive secrecy of our government which our government uses all too often to protect itself from political criticism and not for purposes of national security is the real problem. The journalists who try to figure out and let us know what is behind the wall of secrecy are not to blame.

[woo me with science]

4. +1000000 It is unconscionable that carrying out journalism in this country now makes you a hero,

but it does. He is facing prison for exposing the crimes of our own government. For talking to a source and promising anonymity. For engaging in the job description of investigative journalism.

And it's being done to him under a Democratic President.

Laws are being deliberately changed to suppress dissent and criminalize journalism.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5670929

US Uses Espionage Act To Convict Manning Using Words Added In 1990: "with a computer"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023375845

Fed Court: Just changed interpretation of Espionage Act to cover leaks that are NOT Harmful To USA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023365713

NY Times: White House Uses Espionage Act to Silence Employees, Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101616764

Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023080388


Mission creep. The definitions of "espionage" and "terror" are being actively expanded to the point that journalists and political enemies can now be smeared and dealt with as though they were spies and terrorists. Yes, it's the behavior of a totalitarian state legalizing the oppression it chooses to legalize and criminalizing behaviors that have previously been specifically protected under the Constitution. Sort of like relabeling any male of a certain age who is blasted to smithereens by a drone "an enemy combatant."

Another great Orwellian example is the government's ongoing attempt to give itself the power to define who is and isn't a journalist. What better way to claim to establish "protections" for whistleblowers, when what you are actually doing is creating categories through which you can exclude from protection those you don't want to protect.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023708417
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976082
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955

This is the effect of corporate money in Washington ; our democracy itself is being dismantled. Every avenue Americans have traditionally relied upon to protect ourselves from the purchase and subversion of our own government by warmongering corporate interests is being systematically eliminated: the right to protest, the right to a free press, the protection of whistleblowers. And a relentless propaganda machine has been put into place to excuse it all.

And look how quickly the apologism, the PR defense, the propaganda dispensing smear machine, arrives. On the case, 24/7. Like a Rolex.

War is Peace, and Journalism is Crime. Months ago, we heard a very pretty speech about reining in the military.... immediately followed by carpet-bombing of captive population in Gaza, a new war in Iraq, a new war in Syria, and a TRILLION dollars of our money for new nuclear weapons.

We all live in Oceania now.

Thank you for this OP. All real journalists are my heroes now, too.

[H2O Man]

5. Recommended.

Thank you.

[G_j]

11. K&R!

[Ykcutnek]

14. The President he demonizes is responsible for me getting Medicaid.

That's my hero.

[nashville_brook]

16. these two things can and should be separate, mainly b/c it's not Obama personally

who administers Medicaid and/or the security state.

[woo me with science]

17. Kicking for real journalism,

under grave assault in corporate-authoritarian neoAmerica.

This is your government with corporate money flooding Washington: active dismantling of press freedom and intimidation/criminalization of investigative journalism itself, the ability of reporters to talk to whistleblower sources and assure them confidentiality.

US Plummets In Press Freedom Rankings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024487392

Government Surveillance Is Crippling Press Freedoms, Report Shows
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023902153Obama's escalating war on Freedom of the Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023314296

Risen Case: War on Journalism coming to a head
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101699216

Reporters without Borders: 'Security interests threaten press freedom'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11333723

Petition Calls On Obama Stop Intimidation Of Journalists And Whistleblowers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025509395

Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023300531

James Clapper Calls Journalists "Criminal Accomplices" -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017174990

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. “News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.” Lord Northcliffe

[woo me with science]

19. kick