(Daily Signal) – Investigative journalist
Sharyl Attkisson accused the Obama administration of stifling press freedom by
systematically cracking down on reporters—even treating them like enemies. “If
you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t
like, you will be attacked and punished,” Attkisson said. “You and your sources
may be subjected to the kind of surveillance devised for enemies of the state.”
Attkisson, a senior independent
contributor to The Daily Signal, testified before the Senate Judiciary
Committee yesterday about the Department of Justice’s treatment of journalists
under outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder. SPECIAL: Make Barack Hussein Obama
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nomination to replace Holder is awaiting Senate confirmation, prompting
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to call on Attkisson to give her own
personal account of troubles with the Justice Department.
“The job of getting at the
truth has never been more difficult,” Attkisson said at the hearing. “Facets of
the federal government have isolated themselves from the public they serve.
They covet and withhold public information that we as citizens own.” Attkisson
highlighted the “bullying” tactics that she claims the government, and
specifically the Justice Department, have used against journalists. Government
officials called and threatened her superiors when she was at CBS News,
launched a “frenzied campaign” against her with surrogate bloggers, and even
denied her and other journalists access to federal buildings.
“Let me emphasize that my reporting was
factual,” Attkisson said in reference to her work on the Fast and Furious
gun-walking scandal. “It was not because my reporting was poor.”
Attkisson also reiterated her own problems
with alleged government snooping, which included “keystroke monitoring,
password capture, use of Skype to listen into audio.”
The Justice Department sought to push back on
some of Attkisson’s claims yesterday with the release of an inspector
general report.
Attkisson concluded that freedom of the press
is “under assault due to government policies of secrecy, leak prevention, and
officials’ contact with the media, combined with large-scale surveillance
programs.”
She urged Lynch, if confirmed, to “chart a new
path” as attorney general.
“If we aren’t brave enough to confront these
concerns,” Attkisson said, “it could do serious, long-term damage to a
supposedly free press.”
Source:http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/30/sharyl-attkisson-obama-administration-treats-journalists-like-enemies-state/
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by:http://www.teaparty.org/sharyl-attkisson-obama-administration-treats-journalists-like-enemies-state-80491/
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