"Most Transparent Administration in History" Called "Control Freak" by Journalists
President Obama may have boasted as recently as February that he oversaw "the most transparent administration in history" and the White House may continue to tout a commitment to "an unprecedented level of openness in Government," but the most transparent thing in the federal government these days is the fear of official retaliation government officials feel when approached by journalists. According to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Obama administration actively discourages disclosures to the public, spies on officials to deter contact with journalists, and prosecutes leakers at an unprecedented level.
In "The Obama Administration and the Press," Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of the Washington Post, writes:
In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Those suspected of discussing with reporters anything that the government has classified as secret are subject to investigation, including lie-detector tests and scrutiny of their telephone and e-mail records. An "Insider Threat Program" being implemented in every government department requires all federal employees to help prevent unauthorized disclosures of information by monitoring the behavior of their colleagues.
Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations. Still more criminal investigations into leaks are under way. Reporters' phone logs and e-mails were secretly subpoenaed and seized by the Justice Department in two of the investigations, and a Fox News reporter was accused in an affidavit for one of those subpoenas of being "an aider, abettor and/or conspirator" of an indicted leak defendant, exposing him to possible prosecution for doing his job as a journalist. In another leak case, a New York Times reporter has been ordered to testify against a defendant or go to jail.
"This is the most closed, control freak administration I've ever covered," David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times, tells Downie.
According to Downie, the administration is adept at getting its message out via social media and the Internet—basically, bypassing the media to put its spin on policies and events. But in terms of actual disclosure of information necessary for understanding and assessing government activities, the administration regularly controls or denies access, especially when dealing with hostile media.
Downie writes, "The administration's war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration."
Part of that war on leaks is the "Insider Threat" surveillance program intended to tighten internal surveillance and set government workers to observing each other for signs of…well…transparency with information, which is officially labeled "tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States."
Revelations by Edward Snowden of NSA surveillance, as well as Justice Department snooping on Associated Press and Fox News reporters, have journalists assuming that their records and communications are considered legitimate targets by the government.
On the plus side, no Stasi. Yet.
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This racism will not stand, man.
Speaking of racism, here is the National Congress of American Indian’s report on racist sports team names
The professional sports industry, specifically the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and the National Hockey League (NHL) and the leagues’ team owners have failed to address the racist origins of
deplorable race based marketing strategies of the past. Often citing a long held myth by non-Native people that
“Indian” mascots “honor Native people,” American sports businesses such as the NFL’s Washington “Redsk*ns” and Kansas City “Chiefs,” MLB’s Cleveland “Indians” and Atlanta “Braves,” and the NHL’s Chicago Black Hawks,continue to profit from harmful stereotypes originated during a time when white superiority and segregation were common place.
Each of these professional sports businesses attempt to establish a story of honoring Native peoples through the
names or mascots; however, each one?be it through logos or traditions (e.g., fight songs, mascots, human impersonators, and fan culture)?diminishes the place, status, and humanity of contemporary Native citizens.
What is true about many of the brand origin stories is that team owners during the birth of these brands hoped to gain financially from mocking Native identity.
So basically all Indian-styled names are tainted by the profit motive.
“Redsk*ns”????
Well, “skin” is a four-letter word, I guess.
Oops! I wrote it out.
What I meant to say, was: “Well, ‘sk*n’ is a four-letter word, I guess.”
Grrrr….
So I guess that’s a no on changing them to the Washington Foreskins.
That’s “Foresk*ns”, doncha know.
I’m partial to changing them to the Washington SuperPhallics.
Basketball was too cool for your gay-ass city, Epi. Get over it. Even Portland still has a team.
Don’t speak too hastily, Hugh. There are a ton of people agitating to get a basketball team back, along with building a massively expensive undoubtedly taxpayer funded new stadium across the street from SafeCo, because apparently Key Arena was good enough for the SuperSonics, but not any more. So don’t worry, I may still get fucked yet.
Nah, the NBA prefers to use the threat of a Seattle relocation to extort new arenas out of current cities with perfectly functional arenas that are more than 15 years old.
They picked up the trick by watching how the NFL was able to leverage LA into about 20 new stadiums. It’s a lucrative racket and I don’t think they’ll give it up anytime soon.
I like the “Fighting Honkeys”
You know what? I’m glad they killed your sacred moose, you crybabies.
Paint another one white and turn it loose.
Sacred? Not to me, so go fuck yourself.
Bring on the “Fighting Whites”.
I think “Fighting Whities” has a better ring to it, though I’ll also accept “Fighting Crackers” or “Fighting Honkeys”.
Um…
Fuck the National Congress of American Indian.
Just say no to contrived racism.
Indian groups hate profit because it takes away from the communal nature of their ancient way of life.
By “ancient way of life”, one means “Indian Gaming Commission”, of course.
What is so obscure about FYTW?
According to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Obama administration actively discourages disclosures to the public, spies on officials to deter contact with journalists, and prosecutes leakers at an unprecedented level.
Not so. I just read a story in the NYT citing an unnamed Administration official who said that Obama secretly manipulated events in Syria so that Putin would appear to swoop in at the last second and save his dangling bacon. (It’s called leading from behind, plebes) How come that guy didn’t get prosecuted, huh smart guy?
Because this is the most transparent administration ever, Hugh. I mean, they said they were. So they are. See how that works? Words matter, Hugh.
Huh. Just the War on Drugs is over because they just plugged their ears and called it something else?
Well, what did Holder say? Because whatever he said is reality.
“President Obama may have boasted as recently as February that he oversaw “the most transparent administration in history””
Did he really do that in February of 2013? I mean, it takes some reall cojones to lie like that in public.
He’s a pathological liar totally divorced from any consequences of lying that a normal person would have to face.
That is because he is not a ‘normal’ person. I believe that it is a transparent administration because I see Obama as ‘The Man Who Isn’t There’.
Now, to be fair, Pres. Obama does live in his personal fantasy world, in which the recession ended, he is opposed to war, and he actually cares about the poor.
You must be referring to his doppelganger.
Is that what his supporters are called?
He sees himself as a benevolent dictator, which justifies all of his actions. If you view Obama as a mentally ill person suffering fron delusions of grandeur, who instead of being put into an institution or medicated was put into a position of power that made his delusions true, his actions as President make a lot more sense.
Leonard Downie Jr.
People with variations on the surname Downey: Please get more creative in naming your children. Thank you.
Remember this guy?
How could we forget?
“The administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration.”
And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, pal. I predict this shit will just get worse as more scandals erupt and their bullshit lies start to crumble even more. I don’t think we can even grasp how control-freaky they are.
“Fake” scandals, you dumbass. Go back to bit-tweaking 24/7.
Yeah, that IRS “stuff” just happened, right shreek?
The “top man” at the IRS got fired.
Good. He probably was never worth his salary anyway.
Palin’s Buttplug|10.10.13 @ 7:55PM|#
“The “top man” at the IRS got fired.”
So Obama managed to fool you, which isn’t too much of a problem.
So journalists saying they feel the administration is not transparent covered in the NYT is “fake?”
How would this story become real?
Hey shitstopper…
Fick you with a broken bottle.
And fuck you with one too.
Fick you has to be a first.
“Fake” scandals, you dumbass. Go back to bit-tweaking 24/7
Yes, like the one where a guy who made an obscure youtube video watched by seven people caused the entire middle east to erupt in hatred for ‘murrica? Fake as fake can be.
John Dean knows what happens behind closed doors at the White House. As counsel to President Richard Nixon, he witnessed the malignant influence of excessive secrecy and its corruption of good intentions. Now this true insider presents a stunning indictment of George W. Bush’s administration. With overwhelming evidence, he shows how the obsessive secrecy and hidden agenda of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have resulted in undemocratic-and dangerous-policies for the nation. Dean reveals, among other facts, even criminal offenses: * How the Bush administration deceived Congress into granting it the authorization to go to war against Iraq-a betrayal that is a breach of faith and a constitutional crime * How Bush issued an executive order that sealed presidential papers indefinitely-a fiat that defies Congress and hides information that the public has a right to know * How the White House ordered the EPA to issue assurances that the air quality around Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks was safe-a cynical, political ploy that ignored the dangerous asbestos levels in the area * How a senior administration official leaked that Ambassador Joe Wilson’s wife was a covert CIA agent-an egregious violation of national security that borders on treason
http://www.amazon.com/Worse-Th…..0446694835
The essence of Palin’s Buttplug
I love when it tries so hard to get me to respond to it. It’s so needy and desperate. Delicious.
FUCKING PERFECT!!!!!1111eleventy!!!
Literally LOLed! John’s screaming monkey was good, but that is Shitstopper.
How long you been waiting with that?
It’s perfect because shrike spends all day pissing in his own mouth, never realizing that the peanut gallery is laughing at him and not with him.
I was perusing another thread and shrike was doing his thing, and I actually felt bad for him. I just couldn’t hate something so deserving of pity.
Pity? It was pity that stayed Gillespie’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, GBN?
Not sure I could muster pity for shreeeeek if he was on fire.
Well, I sure as hell wouldn’t piss on him to put him out.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!
Go fuck your daddy.
Booooooosshhh!!!
Aren’t we all glad that Pres. Obama’s handlers decided to double down on the previous guy’s policies?
Nice attempt at a tu quoque.
Now try and stick to this story and offer a credible rebuttal.
Mr. “Classical Liberal.”
I guess I don’t understand the comparison. Is Palin’s Buttplug saying that Nixon is Obama’s hero?
That Obama’s just doing what his hero Nixon was doing?
I wish Obama had the decency to resign like Nixon did. I guess in that way, Obama will never be as good as his hero, Nixon, was.
Seriously, what is Palin’s Buttplug trying to say? That Nixon was so awesome, that he made everything Obama does okay?
You are being led by a lying fascist. So what are you gonna do about it, libertarians? Snarky comments are one thing. And you are working to defeat this bitch how?
By letting him run with the line. Duh.
I don’t understand this comment. It seems to be insulting libertarians for not having the magic ability to force Obama’s impeachment.
Either it’s a “get on board with Team Red” thing, or an ATF agent attempting to get a thread of “DOMESTIC TERROR” to pull on.
LEADERLESS RESISTANCE ANFO SOVEREIGN CITIZEN WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY TURNER DIARIES IMPROVISED FUEL-AIR EXPLOSIVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES RICIN SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS
ALLAHU AKBAR!!! MARG BAR AMRIKA!!!!
Wait, those terms wouldn’t be on the list, would they?
Great, now we’re all on the double secret probationary watch list, instead of just the normal one.
If you’re not on the double secret probationary watch list, you just aren’t living.
Well, that pseudoscience could get them in really big trouble if it pseudosciences in the wrong direction, so there is reason to fear. But they deserve it, seeing as they are part of the government that is doing it to the rest of us.
And yet the lapdog press continues not to do much of any real journolizm. Yeah, better to just bitch about how your master no longer treats you well.
Fucksticks.
Yeah, the part about the “hostile media” is amusing. When’s the last time they dealt with FOX?
Every other outlet is licking the floor where His shoes touched.
Just wait for the years after he’s out of office. I’ll wager than we’ll be seeing a few cases of “well, I sat on this scandalous information because I didn’t want to tarnish the legacy of the first black President, but my conscience finally got the better of me/I need book deal money”.
wager that
I believe salty fucksticks is the proper nomenclature.
OT: That kid pitching for the A’s is TOTALLY gonna get laid at Prom this year.
This game is making me nervous.
Perfect for 5 1/3.
Still nervous.
I wonder how badly the Bears are going to kill the Giants. Poor Eli. Not a good year.
Did you post this before the pick?
Yes. Man, they went to FULL SUCK faster than I thought possible.
Colleague just came in to tell me that after I asked him why he was still at work.
He couldn’t decide whether working or watching would be the worse torture.
I presume you’re asking if it was before the first pick, since it was definitely before the third.
He’s VERY lucky to have been blessed with talented receivers over the years.
And a sick defensive line that’s given him great field position because of all the sacks. What’s killing them this year is the total collapse of their offensive line and the inability to pressure anyone’s quarterback.
I’m convinced that the Bears have a better chance of scoring on a single play from the 25 than they do from the 5 yard line.
They can get big chunks of yards at once, but they suck in the red zone.
You mean like on the second interception in 5 minutes? This is ridiculous.
I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I legitimately think that the Bears may have more touchdowns when the other team has the ball than they do in the red zone.
They have at least 5 defensive touchdowns.
Well then that’s going to serve them well against Eli the way he’s playing. Fuck.
At least the Jets won on Monday.
Do they play teh foozball every Thursday night now, or is it still just special occasions?
Every Thursday. It’s idiotic because there’s no way a team can recover from the previous game in three days.
Couldn’t teh NFL make even more muny if they had a game every night of the week? The rest could play on Sundy and you could televise nearly all of them.
Can you still tackle quarterbacks or are they strictly two hand touch below the waist now?
Especially with the bullshit that is the preseason. I mean I can understand one maybe two preseason games, but four?
Can you still tackle quarterbacks or are they strictly two hand touch below the waist now?
So Football doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s been replaced by pussies.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Holy shit, Eli.
I really hope NFL Films has Tom Coughlin mic’ed up this season.
It would be an absolutely delicious story if New York ends up winning the Teddy Bridgewater sweepstakes.
The Obama administration actively discourages disclosures to the public, spies on officials to deter contact with journalists, and prosecutes leakers at an unprecedented level.”
He really is the Big Brother president.
1984 was written as a warning to the intellectuals of Orwell’s day who were enchanted with communism. You could substitute Obama’s progressivism for that just fine.
Orwell saw the same shit in Russia as he saw in Spain as he knew he’d find anywhere with a leader like that.
People forget that the main character in 1984 was a government intellectual. Nobody’s afraid of the proles per se, but you gotta keep an eye on the intellectuals.
Barack Obama is Big Brother, and Big Brother isn’t just watching us proles. Oh, the shit we’re gonna hear about once Obama’s out of office! …well, Maybe. I bet Big Mama Clinton’s gonna be even harder on the journalists.
I bet Big Mama already hates journalists.
I’m just trying to figure out how Biden’s going to handle them.
“CNN’s Hillary Clinton Movie Has Been Canceled, Director Says”
Check your fave web search engine.
That’s freaky.
And the director says he didn’t drop it because of pressure from CNN (due to the Republicans).
“In a blog for HuffPost, Charles Ferguson said that it was a near total stonewalling by Clinton and her associates that caused him to pull out of the project, rather than any pressure from CNN”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..16080.html
P.S.
UPDATE: NBC also announced Monday that it had canceled its Hillary Clinton mini-series.
She wants to control her image and message, and even Democrat sycophants like NBC can’t be trusted with that.
I’m not sure her life story can be told in a way that’s acceptable to her.
From being a Goldwater Girl…
http://www.capecentralhigh.com…..964-47.jpg
…to being cheated on by her husband, how do you tell her story without making her look like a sap?
Yup.
On the plus side, no Stasi. Yet.
Il Douche!
“Part of that war on leaks is the “Insider Threat” surveillance program intended to tighten internal surveillance and set government workers to observing each other for signs of…well…transparency with information, which is officially labeled “tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.”
I’m not much of a flag-waver, but this offends even my sense of patriotism.
In a perfect world, Obama would be impeached for this alone.
Don’t know if it was mentioned here earlier. Daily Fail is reporting 51k sign ups for Obamacare
“MailOnline’s sources are two Health and Human Services workers who have access to the data as it’s crunched”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..tions.html
If those two Health and Human Services workers don’t want to make the same mistake Assange and Snowden made, then they’re already on a plane to Ecuador.
Get the whole staff on polygraphs.
Wait, that will take away time from fixing it…
This could be a controlled “leak” to counteract the “nobody has signed up” stories.
Of the tens of millions of people who tried to sign up, only 51,000 made it through.
If 20 million people signed up, then their success rate is less than three-tenths of one percent…
And they’re gonna fine these people for not having insurance!
They don’t want that “leaked”. 51,000 is complete and total failure.
Three Year old has food regret
Poutine? Well, there’s your problem, kid.
Wow, that kid is pretty verbally advanced for a three year old boy.
How did Eli Manning win 2 Superbowls?
By NOT following in the footsteps of his big brother?
Kanye also ranted against the Hollywood Walk of Fame for denying his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, a star…
What a gay fish….
Don’t you pretty much have to buy your star anyway?
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.
Apparently that level would be *zero*.
Un. Precedented!
I don’t think it’s possible to reach Peak FYTW.
Is it IKEA furniture or a death metal band?
How about neither?
So are the republicans caving? News report of Boehner leaving silently sounded like it, and it sure seemed like the progs were doing a victory lap earlier.
OCTOBER 11 is WORLD EGG DAY
BECAUSE HOW HARD IS IT TO POACH A GODDAMN EGG
Just give me all the bacon and eggs you have
Why do you think the FDA has armed personnel? For the egg poachers, of course.
Ba dum, chshhh! Will you be here all week?
Wonder what the Yankees are doing tonight? #SuckItStankees
We’re all behind our baseball team! Go get ’em, Tigers!!!
Verlander was dominant. I need to trust in Benoit more.
Verlander is a MACHINE! None of the other pitchers makes me…well, Scherzer, too.
But no one else makes me not nervous. I wish they’d left Verlander in…but complete-game world series victories will be sweeter than DS victories!
Shit shit shit… So nervous now.
Got spoiled a couple years ago when Valverde was good, and the confidence destroyed last playoffs when he wasn’t.
Exhale
Phew…
Ah yes – and the sun never sets on the remnants of the British Empire. #memories
Haha nothing but respect for the Tigers, especially with local favorite Verlander playing so well, but I’ve been a Yankees fan since I was six. So yeah, that means I don’t know what baseball hardship is really, but damn it I’m a Redskins fan. So it evens out.
Zing!
I don’t think anyone can smack the Yankees. I think this is the first time their out of the P/O in something like, what, 18 years?
Oh they’re in for a spate of rebuilding, they’ve really missed the boat on developing young talent in the last few years, but they’re the goddamn Yankees. The longest they’ve gone without winning the World Series is 18 years.
nobody cares about the Yankees.
Yeah, and like Yogi said “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
This was a good fucking series. Two good teams, good pitching – just good baseball.
Better than that fucking ‘roid ball we got when McGuire, Sosa et al were at it. Hated the home run derbies.
Chicks dig the longball
It was.
I think the best four teams are left.
Both should be fun to watch.
Go Dodgers!
Although I gotta say, the Cards are one well-run organization.
There’s a riot in Detroit tonight, but nobody can tell.
+1 overturned, burning car
Huffpo but worth it: (video, autoplay) Niall Ferguson Doubles Down On Krugman Crusade
Wouldn’t it be easier and faster for Krugman to come out and enumerate the times he was right?
Does a list of zero objects count as a list?
Ferguson is annoying himself, whining too much about Krugman’s insults. He is right about NYT having lost any control over him, but that is another issue. He overplays his hand on Krugman’s criticism of the instability of the Eurozone that just by pointing it out Krugman was making the situation worse. Krugman was actually pretty reasonable there even if he got particulars wrong. There just wasn’t much meat there in that interview, I was dissapointed. I much prefer seeing a take down from someone who can point out the structural defects of the neo-Keynesian model. Wenzel had a pretty good set of articles focused on this in the mid oughts.
Also, I don’t know who the interview lady is, but a good hire on Huffpo’s part. Quite a bit smarter than your typical cable television anchor, able in ability to follow and steer the subject matter and has a cheeky personality that knows what wounds to press the salt in.
Krugman was actually pretty reasonable there even if he got particulars wrong
Note, I’m not defending the political sport he made about ‘austerity’, that was partisan red meat. He showed he understood the problems inherent in treating the different sovereigns as equally valid recipients was the source of European monetary instability with his advice to Cyprus.
Every time this administration…no, the democratic party leadership….opens their mouths it is pure newspeak. If you take what they say literally it directly contradicts reality. If you just assume everything is the opposite of what they say it makes perfect sense.
Remember, the left never argues in good faith. EVER.
I wish someone would make a reel of all the newspeak we have heard from these fucks since 2009 the same way all those reels of Bush sticking his foot in his mouth were. At least we could laugh at Bush. There is nothing funny about this shitweasel.
Should the NY Rangers be relegated to the AHL?
It turns out that Torts’ 6-goalie system caused both Lundqvist and their defense to be highly overrated.
Necessary follow-up to any NHL statement: Fire DeBoer.
I don’t get how the media can really claim to be intimidated by BO. He would be totally fucked if the MSM actually did a halfway decent job of reporting what’s going on in Washington and in his administration.
It may be based on expectation. The media has always been supportive, even with major media figures like Woodward claiming (while being jammed by the Administration) that they’re “big supporters”. So it may feel more like a slap in the face when they see the reality. When you’re going after Nixon or Bush or Reagan (pick your GOP bogey-man) any administration hostility towards the media is just “proof” that shenanigans are going on, and thus eggs them on more. It’s just seen as part of the game.
But when it’s your guy doing it to you… you have this kind of, “Well… I never…” reaction.
LOOK ALL THESE KORPARASHUNS HOARDING THE WEALTH
The best part of that was the dude mowing the lawn at the end. It’s really got to confuse proggies…
“Wait, you mean, if the federal government doesn’t do it … it can still be done!?”
The difference between the corps and the government is the corps earned theirs while the government simply took it.
Or they could turn to some of their giant corporations to spot them, with plenty of companies having more cash in the bank than the Treasury right now, Quartz reports.
Uhm, I have more cash in my bank than the Treasury. I’m not borrowing from my home equity loan to pay off my credit card bill.
And “social media” is only useful for rallying the base and getting their talking points straight at this point. No Republicans are going to be swayed by BO’s facebook posts and indies aren’t watching his YouTube propaganda either. It’s not like he’s a political unknown trying to get name recognition anymore.
Can we give up the talk about how “effective” BO’s campaigns have been at using social media? 2008 was the first election where social media had high market penetration. Of course he was the first candidate to use it to help him win! It’s not like they had to coax leftists to pollute their friends’ newsfeeds with leftist propaganda.
I have a marginal interest in social media (translate: nearly none) and the idea of political social media is beyond my understanding. Who would actually subscribe to the President’s ‘tweets’, let alone Michelle Obama’s?
Warty.
You should live in my world sometime, Paul. I’m surrounded by such people.
It’s actually the most transparent administration in history because Obama is invisible when nobody’s looking
Wow, a Mystery Men reference?
Ya know, I’m really starting to miss Bush. He at least gave the impression that he was a really nice guy.
Obama, on the other hand… Something about him just makes me want to punch him in the throat.
Well, they’re fairly similar in many ways. Both are below average intellects who’ve been told they were destined for greatness from an early age, and were immediately confronted with humongous crises upon entering office that they were totally unprepared for, causing them to turn power over to their truly monstrous political mentors.
I do agree that Bush had more character and principle. Some of BO’s power grabs have been so heinous that I think even a power-usurper like GWB would have refused to do them.
The winner, by a nose!
Boom.
I’d like to see the press snub Obama’s speeches, press conferences and photo ops. “You don’t want us to report on you? Okay, we won’t.”
Anytime the government says anything, assume the opposite.
The Internet is changing the flow of information, and it’ll be a tricky thing to deal with.