Given the way the Obama
administration has treated journalists, they might be better off
getting celebrities to speak out. Nevertheless, the Freedom of the
Press Foundation has gotten 14 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists
to
speak out against the administration’s terrible treatment of
New York Times reporter and author James Risen. The
Department of Justice has been trying to force Risen to give the
name of a leaker who provided information to him that detailed the
government’s effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program for a book.
The government believes the source to be Jeffrey Sterling, a former
CIA official, and he’s one of the guys the administration has
targeted under the Espionage Act.
The Supreme Court has
declined to get involved in the case, so Risen’s supporters are
left with little but to try to pressure the administration and
Department of Justice to let the matter drop. Here’s what two-time
Pulitzer winner David Barstow (also of The New York Times)
had to say:
“Enough is enough. The relentless and by all appearances
vindictive effort by two administrations to force Jim Risen into
betraying his sources has already done substantial and lasting
damage to journalism in the United States. I’ve felt the chill
first hand. Trusted sources in Washington are scared to talk by
telephone, or by email, or even to meet for coffee, regardless of
whether the subject touches on national security or not. My fellow
investigative reporters commiserate about how we’re being forced to
act like drug dealers, taking extreme precautions to avoid leaving
any digital breadcrumbs about where we’ve been and who we’ve met.
If you value a vibrant free press, you want the Jim Risens of the
world out hunting for the toughest truths about how power is used
and abused. You don’t want them rotting in jail cells. Do we really
want to be that kind of country?”
Depends on who you ask. But the only answer that matters is the
one from the guys with the guns and the prisons.
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