We have previously discussed the attacks by the Obama Administration on civil liberties and privacy. Obama has also been accused of attacks on press freedoms — resulting in a sharp decline in the standing of the United States on press rights. Now 38 journalism groups have denounced the Obama Administration for censoring media coverage, limiting access to top officials and overall “politically-driven suppression of the news.”
The letter to President Obama is led by the widely respected Society of Professional Journalists. The media has previously denounced the Nixonian surveillance on individual journalists ordered by this Administration. The letter singles out Obama’s breaking of his campaign pledge to have the most transparent Administration in history. Instead, the Obama Administration has equalled or even surpassed the Bush Administration in secrecy and hostility to public or press access to information. While cutting of access of the media, however, these media organization accuse the Obama Administration of giving wide access to lobbyists, special interests and “people with money.”
Once again, the White House has a virtually army of commenters and blog surfers who continually deflect such criticism by referring to how much worse the Republicans are or simply changing the subject. However, the mounting attacks on civil liberties by this Administration has gutted the foundational principles of the Democratic party and virtually destroyed the American civil liberties movement. What is left the power of personality over principle. However, this will not our last president. When he leaves, he will leave little in his wake beyond hypocrisy for those who have remained silent in the face of the abuses. It is the victory of the “blue state/red state” construct that maintain the duopoly of the two parties. Each party excuses its failures by referring to the other as the worst of two evils. For years, Democrats and liberals have supported Obama as he has attacked the defining values that were once the Democratic party. The fact that this letter is even necessary is a shocking statement on the state of American press freedom.
The letter is below:
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, D.C
July 8, 2014Mr. President,
You recently expressed concern that frustration in the country is breeding cynicism about democratic government. You need look no further than your own administration for a major source of that frustration – politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies. We call on you to take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in.
Over the past two decades, public agencies have increasingly prohibited staff from communicating with journalists unless they go through public affairs offices or through political appointees. This trend has been especially pronounced in the federal government. We consider these restrictions a form of censorship — an attempt to control what the public is allowed to see and hear.
The stifling of free expression is happening despite your pledge on your first day in office to bring “a new era of openness” to federal government – and the subsequent executive orders and directives which were supposed to bring such openness about.
Recent research has indicated the problem is getting worse throughout the nation, particularly at the federal level. Journalists are reporting that most federal agencies prohibit their employees from communicating with the press unless the bosses have public relations staffers sitting in on the conversations. Contact is often blocked completely. When public affairs officers speak, even about routine public matters, they often do so confidentially in spite of having the title “spokesperson.” Reporters seeking interviews are expected to seek permission, often providing questions in advance. Delays can stretch for days, longer than most deadlines allow. Public affairs officers might send their own written responses of slick non-answers. Agencies hold on-background press conferences with unnamed officials, on a not-for-attribution basis.
In many cases, this is clearly being done to control what information journalists – and the audience they serve – have access to. A survey found 40 percent of public affairs officers admitted they blocked certain reporters because they did not like what they wrote.
Some argue that controlling media access is needed to ensure information going out is correct. But when journalists cannot interview agency staff, or can only do so under surveillance, it undermines public understanding of, and trust in, government. This is not a “press vs. government” issue. This is about fostering a strong democracy where people have the information they need to self-govern and trust in its governmental institutions.
It has not always been this way. In prior years, reporters walked the halls of agencies and called staff people at will. Only in the past two administrations have media access controls been tightened at most agencies. Under this administration, even non-defense agencies have asserted in writing their power to prohibit contact with journalists without surveillance. Meanwhile, agency personnel are free speak to others — lobbyists, special-interest representatives, people with money — without these controls and without public oversight.
Here are some recent examples:
• The New York Times ran a story last December on the soon-to-be implemented ICD-10 medical coding system, a massive change for the health care system that will affect the whole public. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the federal agencies in charge of ICD-10, wouldn’t allow staff to talk to the reporter.
• A reporter with Investigative Post, an online news organization in New York, asked three times without success over the span of six weeks to have someone at EPA answer questions about the agency’s actions regarding the city of Buffalo’s alleged mishandling of “universal waste” and hazardous waste.
• A journalist with Reuters spent more than a month trying to get EPA’s public affairs office to approve him talking with an agency scientist about the effects of climate change. The public affairs officer did not respond to him after his initial request, nor did her supervisor, until the frustrated journalist went over their heads and contacted EPA’s chief of staff.
The undersigned organizations ask that you seek an end to this restraint on communication in federal agencies. We ask that you issue a clear directive telling federal employees they’re not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so. We believe that is one of the most important things you can do for the nation now, before the policies become even more entrenched.
We also ask you provide an avenue through which any incidents of this suppression of communication may be reported and corrected. Create an ombudsman to monitor and enforce your stated goal of restoring transparency to government and giving the public the unvarnished truth about its workings. That will go a long way toward dispelling Americans’ frustration and cynicism before it further poisons our democracy.
Further examples on the issue are provided as well as other resources.
Sincerely,
David Cuillier
President
Society of Professional Journalists
spjdave@yahoo.comBeth Parke
Executive Director
Society of Environmental Journalists
bparke@sej.orgKathryn Foxhall
Member
Society of Professional Journalists
kfoxhall@verizon.netHolly Spangler
President
American Agricultural Editors’ AssociationGil Gullickson
Board Chair
American Agricultural Editors’ Association Professional Improvement FoundationAlexandra Cantor Owens
Executive Director
American Society of Journalists and AuthorsJanet Svazas
Executive Director
American Society of Business Publication EditorsDavid Boardman
President
American Society of News EditorsHoda Osman
President
Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists AssociationKathy Chow
Executive Director
Asian American Journalists AssociationDiana Mitsu Klos
Executive Director
Associated Collegiate PressPaula Poindexter
President
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass CommunicationMiriam Pepper
President
Association of Opinion JournalistsLisa Graves
Executive Director
Center for Media and DemocracyRachele Kanigel
President
College Media AssociationGay Porter DeNileon
President
Colorado Press WomenSue Udry
Executive Director
Defending Dissent FoundationMark Newton
President
Journalism Education AssociationMark Horvit
Executive Director
Investigative Reporters and EditorsJ.H. Snider
President
iSolon.orgPhyllis J. Griekspoor
President
North American Agricultural JournalistsCarol Pierce
Executive Director
National Federation of Press WomenRobert M. Williams Jr.
President
National Newspaper AssociationBob Meyers
President
National Press FoundationCharles Deale
Executive Director
National Press Photographers AssociationDiana Mitsu Klos
Executive Director
National Scholastic Press AssociationMary Hudetz
President
Native American Journalists AssociationJane McDonnell
Executive Director
Online News AssociationPatrice McDermott
Executive Director
OpenTheGovernment.orgTim Franklin
President
The Poynter InstituteDanielle Brian
Executive Director
Project on Government OversightJeff Ruch
Executive Director
Public Employees for Environmental ResponsibilityGeorge Bodarky
President
Public Radio News Directors IncorporatedMike Cavender
Executive Director
Radio Television Digital News AssociationHerb Jackson
President
Regional Reporters AssociationChristophe Deloire
Secretary General
Reporters without BordersFrank LoMonte
Executive Director
Student Press Law CenterRoy S. Gutterman
Director
Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse UniversityDavid Steinberg
President
UNITY Journalists for Diversity
Come on censor man – I know you can’t take the heat sir…..
Fact 2
Romney & associated parties gained 12 million shares of Mattel, via “The Learning Company” merger; and then bought Kay Bee Toys in mid 2000.
Fact 1
Romney owned “The Learning Company” that was merged by MNAT to Mattel in 1999 (losing investors $3 Billion so harshly that Mattel – GAVE AWAY – “The Learning Company” for FREE.
But no msm and not even this blog would report those facts during election!
Laser – want to give a cite to The Learning Co. thingie?
Bailers, 5 VA whistleblowers testified yesterday about the hell this administration put them through for having the temerity to speak the truth.
Addicting info and Liberals Unite reported on just part of the story. Getting over 2 million web hits and over 200,000 FB’s an Tweets.
Gutless wonders here;
MUCH!
What’s missing on this list are actual working journalists. When the news editors from major newspapers and networks challenge this Nixonian President then we got something. This is small potatoes. But, not redskin potatoes, that would not be PC.
Why not! Even this blog suppresses news (specifically on 1st Amendment issues; because they are worried losing friends on pointing out massive frauds by law firms (even when said firms confessed).
Comparison of real and unreal media ads and manipulations:
Paul, I guess you did not bother READING the letter. It says over the last TWO DECADES, which is twenty years by the way, so it is hardly OBAMA’S FAULT. That puts it back to Clintons time. Of course, Reagan had the same policy too.
I agree that they are correct in not having more access, but during the Cold War and the McCarthy era, some of the best journalism was done by IF Stone who had zero access. He simply went out and did the hard work of reading all the freely available documents that the government produces. It is harder than simply being able to take a staffer to lunch and getting all the insider gossip. If Izzy Stone could do that, I think the journalists should be able to do the same. Try working and doing more of their job first, then I will be protesting with them. Instead, they want the government to make their job easier.
randyjet – I read the letter, however Bush is no longer their problem. OBAMA is the problem. And I.F. Stone got a lot of his ‘facts’ wrong all the time. He was being feed stuff from the Soviets. Izzy was at least a fellow traveler, if not a full-blown Soviet agent. We know he took money from the Soviets, the question is how much and for what. Regardless, it colored his writing.
“The letter to President Obama is led by the widely respected Society of Professional Journalists.” – JT
Journalists barely rank above “the widely respected” congress, tied with lawyers @ ~20% (Gallup).
Of course the presstitutes want to blame anyone but themselves for bad journalism and disfavor.
The reality is that as much as the “Bush did it too” crowd doesn’t want to accept it, the current administration is much more restrictive and controlling than Bush ever was. Prosecution of whistleblowers and sources. Photographs that are coming only from official sources. I know the current white house photographer Pete Souza. It pains me to think of him as a propagandist, and not a journalist with the ultimate assignment. The problem lays with a political machine that abhors the light, and takes every criticism as a personal attack. It’s the reason every critique is brushed off as racism or plain hatred, and not a genuine disagreement over policy. Bush had his problems too, but at least this wasn’t one of them.
The #1 Paul wrote “The journalists are still going to take the White House talking points and print them as news. Obama has nothing to be afraid of.”
Yup, just like they did during Bush II’s time in office. Our mainstream press is fairly pathetic.
On a slightly related note, it’s a wonder that German leaders even talk to President Pinocchio, given the revelation that a second spy has been found in Germany. German media reported the second case was “more serious” than the first.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10957669/Germany-investigating-claims-of-a-second-US-spy-in-Berlin.html
Several right wing “reporters” have been used by Cuban agents to spread lies about democrats who were hardliners against Cuba (A Reminder About the ‘Sourcing’ of Pretend Journalist Matthew Boyle, the Man Who Published the Fake Menendez/Hooker Story).
Who knows who else they subverted.
Thank you. And thank you to all the associations that wrote the letter. I am hopeful that change will take place but that hope is very small. Lying has worked so well for this and previous presidents, and with the continued support for his lies by his supporters, that hope is indeed small.
It didn’t take long for the “Bush did it” crowd to show there face. Bush is gone, we can’t change what Bush did, we can demand that current and future Presidents obey our Constitution.
Paul C. Schulte
Dredd – the Bush administration went back to the press rules used during WWII and put in place by FDR.
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Thanks for your opinion (False Cuban News Agents Active).
I am focusing on persistent problems, not admin to admin, which is part of the duopoly strategy.
For example :
(US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research).
Its all bad.
Choosing one’s favorite poison is a fool’s errand.
Dredd – the Bush administration went back to the press rules used during WWII and put in place by FDR.
The journalists are still going to take the White House talking points and print them as news. Obama has nothing to be afraid of.
Reblogged this on Dead Citizen's Rights Society.
It goes with the territory seeing as how the U.S. has the best propagandists in the world:
(Warriors Press For Propaganda – 4).
Remember when “the NSA spies on most Americans” was a conspiracy theory?
Reblogged this on BLOGGING BAD w/Gunny G ~ "THE CLINGERS".