Barack Obama’s administration launched a war on the free press. Here’s how one of the victims of that was described the Obama years.
Criticism of Mr. Obama’s stance on press freedom, government transparency and secrecy is hotly disputed by the White House, but many journalism groups say the record is clear. Over the past eight years, the administration has prosecuted nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists.
Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. have spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records, labeled one journalist an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal case for simply doing reporting and issued subpoenas to other reporters to try to force them to reveal their sources and testify in criminal cases.
Barack Obama’s record on press freedom is worse than President Donald Trump’s. While Trump may bluster, the Obama administration used the levers of government to go after journalists in an unprecedented way. That’s the real legacy. No matter how much Brian Stelter tries to cover it up.
