Category: Media

Journalism groups, such as the Society of Professional Journalists, are calling upon reporters and editors to contact members of Congress and to write editorials in favor of a national shield law to allow reporters to protect confidential sources. But legal experts on both sides of the issue agree that a national shield law probably would not have helped the press in the big national security and criminal cases that have gained public attention, such as the recent subpoena of the phone records of about 100 AP journalists and the investigation of Fox’s James Rosen. The AP investigation began after a story gave away the existence of a double agent tracking al-Qaida’s leading bomb-maker and the Rosen investigation followed his report indicating that U.S. intelligence had a source within North Korea’s leadership.

Today, one of the gems of St. Louis TV news is Kelly Jackson. The weekend anchor for KSDK works part time, enabling her to anchor from early morning to late at night. If Channel 5 is making a mistake with her, it is not having her as a full-time anchor. Jackson combines her superb reading skills with a delightful personality. She knows how to be serious when appropriate and can engage in friendly banter with the sports and weather people as if we, the viewers, are in the room with her.

Almost every U.S. schoolchild knows that democracy means “the people rule” or “government by the people,” or some variation on that theme. Right? Well, not really. The world is a lot more complicated than that and includes the fact that intense and mobilized minorities exercise an impact on public policy far in excess of what their numbers of members or sympathizers would justify. Nowhere is this political weight and outsized impact on public policy more clearly evident than in the debate and conflict over guns and gun legislation. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of the most powerful and well-financed interest groups in Washington, or in any state capital. It works consistently and effectively to define the framing of the gun control debate, and to ensure that federal and state policies reflect its preferences.

The press has been breathless in its coverage of the three “scandals” that plague the first months of President Obama’s second term. It has been especially hyperbolic in covering the issue on which it has a direct interest: subpoenas of reporters. Americans are told that the scandals are another Watergate, that Obama is Nixonian, that Obama will be forced to appoint a special counsel, that the president’s entire second term could be destroyed by the IRS, Benghazi and press subpoenas episodes. It is hardly noticed that there is no evidence of criminality or presidential involvement in any of the alleged misdeeds.

“Obama’s war on journalism.” That’s what Eli Lake, national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and Newsweek (and former State Department correspondent for the UPI) called it. “Instead of calling it Obama’s war on whistleblowers, let’s call it what it is,” he said.