Author: Scott Lambert

Student newspapers cover Trump’s attacks on DEI,free speech

While the national press debates President Trump’s DEI initiatives at colleges and universities across the country, college newspapers find themselves at the forefront during a tumultuous time. The Student Press Law Center issued a special media alert April 4 for student media covering these events. “At this moment, it is essential to hear from those…

A whistleblower from Missouri looks back at the painful consequences

On the Senate floor as the impeachment trial rushed to an end, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,handed a message to Chief Justice John Roberts asking him to expose the whistleblower who objected to President Trump’s phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Roberts refused to name the whistleblower. The next day, Paul read the name aloud…

St. Louis’ forgotten espionage case

By SCOTT LAMBERT / Former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, a Missourian who graduated from Millikin University and Washington University Law School, recently was sentenced to 42 months for violating multiple counts of the Espionage Act. Sterling was convicted as New York Times reporter James Risen’s source in a chapter of the book State Of War, which described a botched CIA attempt to hinder Iran’s nuclear program. For the press, the story was strictly about Risen’s battle with the government and First Amendment issues. The media never questioned Sterling’s guilt or innocence. As a group, the press stayed on the Risen as hero narrative, leaving Sterling alone.