For civil libertarians, the administration of President Barack Obama fallen well short of the great expectations from his first election. Indeed, despite his high polling numbers with liberals, President Obama has left one of the worst records of modern presidents in areas like privacy, press freedom, transparency, and unilateral executive action. The antagonistic position of the Obama Administration with the media was evident in this year’s ranking by Reporters Without Borders. The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in term of the “level of freedom of information in 180 countries.”
While this reflects a slight improvement from 2015 when the U.S. was ranked 49, the organization felt compelled to warn that the “relative improvement by comparison hides overall negative trends.” One of the driving factors cited by Reporters Without Borders has been the Obama Administration’s “war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operations, especially those linked to counter-terrorism.”
Civil libertarians have been mystified by the disconnect between the actions of the Obama Administration against press freedom, privacy, and other areas and how the Administration is viewed by liberals. These were once the touchstones of liberals and Democrats. The ranking of the U.S. is a disgrace for a nation that was once the gold standard for press freedom. Former Attorney General Eric Holder showed little regard for such protections. However, the ultimate responsibility for this record must be laid at the feet of the President. This is his Administration and he will leave a troubling legacy in attacking the basic guarantees of a free press.
Here is the report: Reporters Without Borders
Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world.
Wait obama chilled the press free speech? How? I didn’t think he had any influence over cases. Did he issue an exec order on prosecutorial discretion how media should be treated? Did he not veto or veto something on the matter? It is not obamas fault it is something else….maybe some few ppl own all the media….like a gannett company. Or the press are cowards (except gretta). Or …. Since the govt isn’t transparent….the press has little freedom. Because to be the fourth estate they have to break the law (thinking murdoch wire taps here).
J – Obama supplied questions to reporters for press conferences. Held fewer press conferences. There is no longer a pool photographer (all photographs are given out by the President’s office). He gives individual press conferences (were he requires all questions in advance) with local reporters rather than national reporters. His “Baghdad Bobs” lie just as well as the real Baghdad Bob. His office sends bullet points to national reporters on news he wants covered.
I looked at the ratings, and to say this is taken a bit out of context, is an understatement. Of course, the haters have to have some hook to go after Obama. I saw that countries such as Liechenstein, Andorra, Iceland, Belize, and even world powers such as the UK rate higher than the US on the chart. So the numbers are not as bad as portrayed. I do dislike many of Obama’s actions in this regards, but given the previous administration, it is FAR better than that.
I was also astounded to see that the UK, Canada, Germany and the like who are actively prosecuting cases AGAINST freedom of speech rank higher than the US. I guess that since the people who are facing prison are not journalists, they don’t matter in the rankings. Then the UK has the worst laws in regards to leaking of official secrets and more prosecutions than the US. Then there is the little matter of Assange and the UK is higher? GET REAL! It is more productive to cite specific cases and instances than to try and paint the Obama administration as the 41st ranking in the world. That so called rating is more than a little skewed to begin with, and I challenge all who agree with this ranking to go on any street corner in the US and rant against illegals, gays, etc, and see if you go to jail. Then try the same thing in Canada, U.K. or Germany. Let me know the results please, once you are free to let us know the results. THEN tell us how bad Obama and the USA are.
What an exceptional legacy Barrack Obama has created for himself and his administration.
Wow.
Dick
>
The almost certain Democratic nominee for president is on record supporting an amendment to restrict first amendment speech protections. The increasingly likely Republican nominee is on record as against free trade and favoring deportation of millions of people from the US. Both major parties are authoritarian, just wanting to use the police power in different ways to support different factions.
There is an alternative. The likely Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is now polling at 11% in a Clinton/Trump matchup.
Ronald Reagan had 139 people indicted and convicted from his own administration who were then pardoned by George 1. Biggest liar. Far from it. So far from it compared to no weapons of mass destruction which caused the destruction of this country it is almost laughable thinking about the fools who are blinded by hate.
Hillary will be even more spectacular in the effort to bring us all to heel, along with her hotline to the Fourth Branch.
Obama is one of the biggest liars and criminals in world history.
Pounding people and calling them “Liberals”. Kinda like the McCarthy era. Some of you do not have that era in your memory or knowledge. I am speaking of Joseph McCarthy. The tactic of the Republican Party was, and is, to brand any Democrat as a Communist. Now it is Liberal. But the best era of the Republican Party is still with us. That is the Southern Strategy articulated and embraced by the Republican Party back in Nixon, Reagun terms. You do not have to say the N word three times anymore to get the attention of the rednecks whom you want to vote Republican. No, as Lee Atwater preached: all you have to do is say welfare cheat, food stamp addict, liberal, or some such words and you will get the Southern and Northern bigot vote. If you just say Liberal you will get a wide swatch of new Republicans who dont want to be branded as bigots on the race issue but will go for the anti Liberal rant.
I hear it each day on the blog here.
Lets just make a song and sing the song. Then you won’t have to say the N word three times anymore to get votes.
“Liberal, liberal bo bigeral.
Fee fi mo liberal. Liberal!
If the first two letters are ever the same..
Drop them both and say the name ..
Like Bob, Fob friggin F so Rob or
Mary, Mary, is contrary…”
Elmer – you make up stuff out of whole cloth.
Under a Kardashian, I mean Trump, presidency, I’m sure we’ll climb right up the list. Suing papers and journalists for “hit pieces” is extremely comforting policy.
Speaking of transparency, I’m still waiting to hear from Dump’s investigators in Hawaii concerning the president’s birth certificate. Groundbreaking stuff, believe me, believe me.
President Obama like all presidents is far from perfect. And he should be criticized by all sides on this. But the boring generalizing taking place here (waa, liberals!) adds astoundingly little.
The sad truth is that, despite the high regard in which Democrat/lefty *voters* like to hold ideals such as press freedom, transparency, assassinating U.S. Citizens overseas with drones, and so on, Democrat *presidents* seldom earn high marks in those areas. Why? Many reasons, but two are chief among them. First is the hypocrisy of power. All presidents tend to want more power when they are the ones who are in charge of using it. Second is tribalism. On issues like this, when a Democrat is in charge, those most vocal about opposing government impingement onto such liberties tend to remain silent because one of “their team” is in charge and they are reluctant to criticize the leader of their tribe. So, when a Democrat restricts press freedom (or some other other value stereotypically championed by the left), the people who would otherwise naturally oppose it remain quiet.
BTW, this is not issue afflicting just one party. There are also ample instances of this on the right. For example, Republicans and conservatives more generally like to think that they champion free markets, limited government, and paring back the welfare state. But, when the last Republican president pushed for “voluntary” steel tariffs, expansions of the federal department of education, farm subsidies, Medicare part D, etc., most Republicans sat on their hands. If a Democrat president had been promoting those programs, Republicans would have been vocally opposing them to the point where it’s quite doubtful they would have passed. But, prominent GOP leaders were often silent or actually supported such plans. (Even Tom Delay admitted that he only supported some of those programs because he felt he should support President Bush.)
So, yeah. Anyone is probably fooling himself if he thinks the next president won’t decide that some value he claims to uphold isn’t actually that important when it stands in the way of his exercising his power.
Whoops, I meant to say liberal Republican!
Disagree with Bill Maher. Obama isn’t even a “liver” Republican.
Agree with Bill Maher.
The sole reason for Obama’s continued support among liberals is because he is likable and he is black. That’s all there is to it. As a left Democrat I am the exception having often been scolded for any critical remark about Obama based on policy objections. It is viewed as unfair to criticize him in any way even on breaking his most important campaign promises on items like this. As Bill Maher has often said, “Obama is not a Democrat at all. He’s a liberal Republican from the 70’s.” That’s pretty much the truth.
Thank you, Barack!!!!
Attaboy Barack! You’re doin’ a great job!
Civil libertarians and free press ……really???
Why is that man smiling? What has happened to this country in terms of civil rights and freedom of speech and the press during his administration has been truly depressing. He has succeeded in redefining transparency as an almost obcessive levels of secrecy wherein even documents that have been public for decades have been reclassified as secret! Obama should be ashamed but he is beyond all that.
A friend on Facebook, I know, posted the following from “God” American should invade itself and force itself to accept democracy”. Not as funny as one might think.