Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:15:00 +0000

Addressing reporters Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "If you are asking me whether the president believes that journalists should be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the answer is no.” The comment came in light of revelations that in 2010 an FBI agent had described Fox News correspondent James Rosen as a possible “co-conspirator” in a crime for the journalistic act of obtaining leaked information from a State Department source.

Even if we are to take Carney at his word, his remark comes as little assurance. The president may believe that journalists should never be prosecuted for doing their job. What's at stake, then, is what this administration considers the job of a journalist. In the context of the ongoing war on leaks and an administration invested in the tight control of information, the presidential view on protected journalistic activity seems a far cry from a robust Fourth Estate.

Bradley Manning’s trial pushed back again

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:27:00 +0000

As noted here Tuesday, the military judge presiding over Pfc. Bradley Manning's court-martial ruled that the soldier had suffered unlawful pretrial punishment and for this would have his sentence reduced by 112 days if he is convicted. However, the same judge ruled on Wednesday that the start of Manning's trial be pushed back another three months -- which means the accused whistle-blower will spend almost as much time as his sentence reduction in extended pretrial detention.

According to reports from Fort Meade where Manning's pretrial hearings are again underway, Judge Col. Denise Lind has rescheduled the trial for June to allow extra time to deal with classified information. The trial had previously been scheduled for February and then March.

On Wednesday, the second day of a new round of pretrial motion hearings, Manning's prosecutors attempted to invoke Civil War-era examples to further their case that the soldier is guilty of aiding the enemy, for which he could face life in prison. According to an AP report, the prosecutors compared Manning's passing documents to WikiLeaks to the case of Pvt. Henry Vanderwater, a Union soldier convicted in 1863 of indirectly aiding the enemy by giving an Alexandria, Va., newspaper a command roster that was then published.

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Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer

Bradley Manning’s trial pushed back again