'Reporter's Privilege' Under Fire From Obama Administration Amid Broader War On Leaks

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations.

Before a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Department of Justice lawyer argued that New York Times reporter James Risen should be forced to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information to Risen about a botched plot against the Iranian government.

Rather than arguing the specifics of the case, DOJ appellate lawyer Robert A. Parker asserted that there is no reporter's privilege when a journalist receives an illegal leak of national security secrets.

When Judge Robert Gregory asked Parker to explain why the public's interest in a free press was outweighed by the specific circumstances in this case, Parker declined. "I don’t think there would be a balancing test because there's no privilege in the first place," Parker said. "The salient point is that Risen is the only eyewitness to this crime."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/18/reporters-privilege-obama-war-leaks-new-york-times_n_1527748.html

[msongs]

1. gee is it 2005 again? nt

[Ed Suspicious]

2. It really is strange sometimes watching this administration choose its battles. WTF. n/t

[JDPriestly]

8. Yes. Swat teams go after marijuana growths and news reporters who actually

do their jobs but leave corrupt politicians alone -- unless they can frame a rival or an inconvenient politician as corrupt and ruin their reputations and families.

[Octafish]

3. Isn't it grand to have a liberal constitutional scholar in the White House?

It's like George W Bush & Associates never left.

[villager]

4. +1

n/t

[lsewpershad]

5. plus 1 more

[emilyg]

14. and 1 more

[coalition_unwilling]

6. Am seriously going to be holding my nose when I go

to the polls in November.

Hope that doesn't violate DU's TOS. if so, oh well.

[cstanleytech]

9. No one said you had to agree with every single decision of

any president though even Obama and no I havent agreed with all of them either even the ones I understood why he made the decision he made such as the extension for longer unemployment benefits deal he made with the republicans for him agreeing to an extension to the Bush tax cuts.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. That's good because I'm a member of the ACLU and

take freedom of the press very seriously. More seriously than today's MSM deserves. But still.

[JDPriestly]

7. Fascism 101. The Obama administration is a joke when it comes to free speech rights

and freedom of the press.

This is pitiful!

[dotymed]

11. +100000 n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

12. I'm really glad it's a Democratic President doing this.

If it were a Republican, I'd be really pissed off.
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Please tell me I don't need the sarcasm thingie on this one.

[sakabatou]

15. Nope, you don't need the tag

[OnyxCollie]

13. K&R. nt