Obama is ‘the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation,’ says Targeted New York Times Reporter

“They don’t want to believe
that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers.
But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a
generation,” the New York Times‘ James Risen
tells his colleague, Maureen Dowd, in a piece published
yesterday. This comes after years of targeting by first the Bush,
and especially the Obama administrations, for revealing CIA bungling
in Iran. The feds want to know his sources; he won’t tell. And
so the feds continue to lean on him, using powers derived from a
peculiar interpretation of the Espionage Act of 1917.

Risen’s assessment is hardly unique. Earlier this year, the
Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression hit
the Obama administration with
three muzzle awards, in part for its persecution of journalists
who expose information in ways that government officials find
inconvenient.

Earlier in the year, the United States slid
13 spots on rankings of press freedom compiled by Reporters
Without Borders. It was “one of the most significant declines, amid
increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of
leaks,” the group announced.

And last year, David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington
correspondent of The New York Times, said of the Obama
administration, “This is the most closed, control freak
administration I’ve ever covered.” That quote appeared in a

report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which
featured more criticisms along exactly those lines.

Could be, the current occupant of the White House is doing
something just a tad wrong when it comes to free speech and a free
press.