‘Fight Back’ Against Government, Urges Journalist Targeted by Administration

James Risen, a New York
Times reporter, potentially faces jail time as he resists
efforts by the
Obama administration to squeeze him for his sources on a story
about a failed CIA operation. Now that the Supreme Court has

rejected his appeal, he’s almost entirely at the mercy of the
Department of Justice. Under such pressure, some reporters would
fold, while others would just lawyer up. Risen is shooting back,

publicly castigating the Obama administration in March as “the
greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at
least a generation.” He also wants the press to continue going
after government no matter the backlash from imperious
officials.

“Journalists have no choice but to fight back because if they
don’t, they will become irrelevant,” Risen
told journalism students at Colby College in Maine just this
past weekend as he received the Elijah Parish
Lovejoy Award for journalism.

Some of the attendees seemed to want to let the guy in the White
House and his top cronies off the hook, asking what role role Obama
and Attorney General Eric Holder played in his persecution. Risen
wasn’t having any of it.

“I don’t think any of this would be happening under the Obama
administration if Obama didn’t want to do it,” Risen said. “I think
Obama hates the press. I think he doesn’t like the press and he
hates leaks.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists made the same point in a

special report last year:

U.S. President Barack Obama came into office pledging open
government, but he has fallen short of his promise. Journalists and
transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure
of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the
press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information
and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources
from speaking to journalists.

That report quoted David E. Sanger of The New York
Times saying, “This is the most closed, control freak
administration I’ve ever covered.”

Following up on the theme, the Associated Press (a target of
Obama administration surveillance) last month published a list of
“8
ways the Obama administration is blocking information.” That
article noted that “day-to-day intimidation of sources is chilling”
and that the administration even tries to control the information
that state and local officials can disclose.
Surveillance technology and practices are among the “secrets”
administration officials lean on local agencies to keep quiet.

Threatened by an administation that is actively hostile to
transparency, public disclosure, and the independent press, James
Risen’s vow to go to jail to protect his sources’ confidentiality
is a hell of a good example to set for rising young
journalists.

That said, hopefully the Obama administration wil have the
decency to back off so he doesn’t have to keep the promise.