"We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances," Obama said. "And when something like this happens, the local authorities –- including the police -– have a responsibility to be open and transparent about how they are investigating that death, and how they are protecting the people in their communities."
He said that there's "never an excuse for violence against police," but also that there's no excuse for authorities to use "excessive force" against protesters.
He added that "police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their job."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
I completely agree Mr President. Except does that statement apply to.... you? Sounds like the height of hypocrisy, considering the press violations detailed here and many other googlable places.
New York Times reporter James Risen argued that the Obama administration has been “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” Risen, as reported by the website Poynter, “is fighting an order that he testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer accused of leaking information to him.” He added that the administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” to “create a path for accepted reporting.” He said that any journalist “who exceeds those parameters, ‘will be punished,’” and that these prosecutions have created “a de facto Official Secrets Act.”
http://www.aim.org/...
It could be that at this point, Mr Obama and Mr Holder just
plan to harass reporters who are just doing their jobs rather than actually arresting and jailing them. We'll see.