Risen case: Official Sources May Be the Only Sources

[G_j]

Last edited Mon Oct 20, 2014, 08:43 PM - Edit history (1)

http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/official-sources-may-be-the-only-sources/

Official Sources May Be the Only Sources
Risen case tests reporters' power to reveal government wrongdoing

By Lauren McCauley

<snip>

“This case is the closest we’ve come to the edge of the precipice, to reporter/source privilege being banned,” said Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights for the Government Accountability Project, in a phone interview.

Risen, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, has been ordered by the DoJ to testify in the prosecution of former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of leaking information about a botched Clinton-era CIA mission to give Iran phony nuclear information—which ended up giving Iran real information on how to build a bomb. Risen wrote about the failed operation in his 2006 book State of War.
Risen was initially subpoenaed by the Bush administration in 2008, but the order expired as the reporter fought against it through the courts. To the surprise of many, the subpoena was renewed under President Obama in 2010—despite repeated calls to drop the pursuit.

“Risen informed the public about the dangerous stupidity of a CIA operation and seriously embarrassed the agency in the process,” said Norman Solomon, a longtime FAIR associate and co-founder of RootsAction.org, an online advocacy group, in an email exchange. “Evidently a pair of unforgivable sins in the eyes of both the Bush and Obama administrations.”

If the government does uphold its subpoena and Risen is punished for taking his stand, journalists and free press advocates say that this would set a dangerous precedent for the interpretation of press freedom under the First Amendment.

“Functionally, a reporter will no longer be able to promise source confidentiality,” Radack explained. “This will impact people who want to disclose wrongdoing,” she said. “Whistleblowers disclosing fraud, waste, abuse and illegality will no longer go to the press.”

Robust investigative journalism has already suffered from budget cuts and waning interest in long-form journalism, and this “chilling effect” on sources will provide the “final nail in the coffin of the free press as we know it,” Radack added.

...more...

[Autumn]

1. When only official government sources are allowed to be the only sources,

we are fucked. Rec.

[mrdmk]

2. K & R while the public grabs their collective ankles!

[JDPriestly]

3. As we suspect, the secrecy is used to protect the intelligence

bureaucracy from the embarrassment of its own incompetency.

This will not just mean the end of democracy but will remove the United States from the leadership of the world. This is concealment -- a form of fraud. The US intelligence bureaucracy pretends to be what it is not, sells itself charging a huge price as something it is not. That's what the secrecy is about. It protects the secret errors and wrongs of our hidden shadow government.

When Bush lied about the reasons for the War in Iraq, I trusted him. When I realized he had lied, my world crashed. I will never trust what my government says again. And since that time, I've been given more and more reason to distrust. The Republicans are worse than the Democrats.

I do trust Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and a few others, but for the most part, our government is utterly corrupt and dishonest. It makes me so sad to have to admit that. So many wonderful people have lost their lives fighting for the ideals of our nation -- and it has come to this.

[grasswire]

4. did you read that Playboy interview with Brian Schweitzer?

There's a fearless man who values privacy rights and truth in government.

[JDPriestly]

5. I'm not exactly one to keep up with Playboy. Do you have a link?

[grasswire]

6. oh lol --- me either

There's a link to the article here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1062255

worth reading the whole article

[G_j]

11. great article

thanks!

[JDPriestly]

7. Read a good part of it. Schweitzer would be a great vice president for a Bernie Sanders

candidacy. His knowledge of agriculture and the Middle East would be really good.

He would be culturally foreign to people on the East and West coasts -- and that is where the American population is. But he would be a good balance to Bernie Sanders. Sounds like they agree on a lot of the fundamental issues.

He could also work with Elizabeth Warren. But his knowledge and abilities in my opinion fit better with Sanders.

I don't think Schweitzer would work well with Hillary. He would upstage her too much.

[grasswire]

9. exactly why he's interesting

Not beholden to entrenched Ive League elites. A populist.

I'd wager Hillary would run screaming from him.

[rhett o rick]

10. Your world crashed when you found out that Republicans lied and I understand.

My world crashed when Democrats ignored their constituents, ignored their values, ignored the protests of our allies and the whole f'n world. They ignored the fact that Republicans lie with every breath. They ignored the glaring discrepancies in the intelligence. And they bowed and kowtowed to George Bush the Dim-Son.

I will never support those Democrats that betrayed us.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!