A frontal assault on freedom of the press
Barack Obama was elected by progressives and liberals, and it was expected that his would be a liberal and progressive administration, yet ever since he first came into office, it has acted more like a right-wing dictatorship. He's making the actions of Richard Nixon during Watergate look like those of a Sunday School teacher. Revelations revealed yesterday, May 13, 2013, by the Associated Press, the nation's chief news gathering organization for print media, that the government, looking to find the sources of leaks and the identity of whistle blowers, secretly obtained two month's worth of telephone records for twenty separate AP phones - in New York, Washington, Hartford, Connecticut, and for the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery. The records the Department of Justice obtained for more than 20 different telephones listed incoming and outgoing calls, for the duration of all the calls, and for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters.
An egregious abuse of power
This action by the Obama administration may be one of the grossest violations of both the United States Constitution's First Amendment - freedom of the press, and Fourth Amendment - protection from unreasonable search and seizure, by any Justice Department in the history of the nation.
Ben Wizner, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, said "Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy, and that freedom often depends on confidential communications between reporters and their sources."
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt fired off a sharply worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, protesting the government's actions, saying that they were direct assaults on the freedom of the press:
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of the Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."
We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP's constitutional rights to gather and report the news."
Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU's Legislative Office in Washington, D.C., added, "The media's purpose is to keep the public informed and it should be free to do so without the threat of unwarranted surveillance. The Attorney General must explain the Justice Department's actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again."
Ben Wizner, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, said "Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy, and that freedom often depends on confidential communications between reporters and their sources."
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt fired off a sharply worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, protesting the government's actions, saying that they were direct assaults on the freedom of the press:
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of the Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."
We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP's constitutional rights to gather and report the news."
Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU's Legislative Office in Washington, D.C., added, "The media's purpose is to keep the public informed and it should be free to do so without the threat of unwarranted surveillance. The Attorney General must explain the Justice Department's actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again."
Obama - a classic case
When Barack Obama left Harvard and went to the south side of Chicago to become a community organizer and champion of the oppressed, his heart was definitely in the right place. He moved up in the world, becoming a state senator in the Illinois legislature, then a United States Senator, and finally President of the United States. He is now a classic example of Lord Acton's observation that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
This latest action on the part of the Obama administration, to this observer's mind, means that he should be impeached.
Press freedom photo from giramondo.com
Eric Holder photo from wikimedia commons
Freedom to know photo from shutterstock.com
This latest action on the part of the Obama administration, to this observer's mind, means that he should be impeached.
Press freedom photo from giramondo.com
Eric Holder photo from wikimedia commons
Freedom to know photo from shutterstock.com
No comments:
Post a Comment