Why Won't Eric Holder Guarantee First Amendment Rights For Journalists?
from the shameful dept
On September 18th, John Cusak wrote a rather powerful open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking if he'll guarantee the First Amendment rights of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Potras, two American journalists at the center of the Ed Snowden leak reporting.Put simply, will Attorney General Eric Holder, the US State Department, and the FBI promise safe passage to journalists, their spouses and loved ones, and vow not to interfere with their reporting on these NSA stories?And, of course, it goes well beyond those two (as Cusack acknowledges). The recent story of On The Media producer Sarah Abdurrahman and her family and friends (all US citizens) being detained at the border for no real reason (other than the obvious: the fact that they were Muslims, which is not a reason to detain them), highlights how the Constitution-free situation at the US border is incredibly problematic and chilling for journalists.
So far, the answer has been far from clear.
Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the two American journalists at the center of these stories, have been doing their reporting from Brazil and Germany respectively. The US government has not, so far, stated publicly whether they can enter the country without receiving the same outrageous treatment that Miranda received. Or worse.
Can they practice journalism in the United States, without their hard drives being confiscated, without an unconstitutional search-and-seizure taking place at the border? Are they free to enter the United States without being served a subpoena, or even jailed? Unlike the UK, the United States is supposed to be bound by the first amendment of the constitution, which exists to bar such treatment of journalists.
At the very least, the US government should provide an answer as to whether or not it will respect the freedom of American journalists to come back into their own country, but so far, Holder has remained silent.
The federal government keeps talking about how it wants to regain the trust of the American people. One way to do that would be to stop intimidating and spying on journalists -- even those critical of the administration's practices -- and to let them do their reporting. After all, the best way to build up the trust is to allow those journalists to do their jobs, only to discover that there's nothing legitimate to attack. The only reason to go after them would be if the administration knows that there are plenty of things to hide that will make them look bad. And then we're right back to the reason that there's no trust.
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Filed Under: eric holder, first amendment, free speech, glenn greenwald, john cusack, laura poitras, nsa, nsa surveillance
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DOJ naswer
I think Holder and the DOJ has already given their answer. It is fairly plain to see if you stop and think about it.
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Misunderstanding...
No, you misunderstood them:
The federal government keeps talking about how it wants to remand the American people in a truss.
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Re: Misunderstanding...
Fixed that for you.
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Re: Re: Misunderstanding...
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Really?
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"The federal government keeps talking about how it wants to regain the trust of the American people." Do you believe the prostitute that tells you what an animal you are and how big it is? (WTF with the hookers and me today. 3rd reference)At least when the hooker screws you there is a brief happy ending.
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Re: Really?
A: They both charge the government $100 a screw.
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He is assured of many many millions of dollars from his future law partnership, speaking fees and seats of various boards - as long as he does what's expected and doesn't rock the boat.
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Based on the established history of Laura Poitras being detained multiple times for no reason beyond harrassment, I'd say the answer is "No."
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Re:
In that situation I'd have the 50 gig drive encrypted several times over, containing nothing more than countless copies of the one document they fear the most, the one where even mentioning it is considered taboo, even the slightest quote from it is considered blasphemy...
The Constitution.
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Couple this is a surveillance agency gone rabid, the fact that it turns over evidence to be used by prosecutors and demands the source of the evidence be held secret, that nearly the entire government is trying to hide that and still at the same time claim it's legal by attempting to change the meanings of the English language, the absolute refusal of owning up to exactly what it has been doing while claiming not to do it and to claim it's being transparent in the process, and top it off with dancing around very valid questions, submitted in advance, with just plain out ignoring them as a way to refuse to answer.
Yeah, the American people get the picture. That's why the government has lost the trust of the public. It's going to take more than just wishing to get that trust back. It's going to take actual doing, with verification of it done, with real (not make believe) oversight, and the heads that made this madness occur need to be removed from office and held accountable.
So far, being held accountable seems to be a foreign idea when it comes to bankers, politicians, and security. As long as it is, there is no trust in government.
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FTFY.
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Us vs. Them
Of course, there are another dozen three-letter agencies that also spy on Americans, with federal bureau of ineptitude having a long history of private files on many public figures dating back to the Hoover administration (and I don't mean Herbert).
As already noted, most Americans are happily viewing Dancing with the Stars and couldn't care less about invasions of privacy and the steady erosion of basic constitutional rights. We passed the second of the patriot acts almost ten years ago -- Snowden's "leaks" only skim the surface of its ramifications upon freedom in America.
Remember the talk of revoking Patriot II? It all disappeared when Obama threatened to bomb Syria. Mission accomplished.
The facts show that not only is the First Amendment in jeopardy, but also 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8.
And this trend did not start with Obama. The question is, who does he, and past presidents, serve? Certainly not the American people -- only our "vital interests."
There is certainly something fundamentally wrong about our government, but it goes much deeper than allowing 2 journalists to travel freely.
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The historical record clearly shows that the real american journalist wares a cape and gets changed in a phone booth.
I suspect the difficulty you now have in actually finding a phone booth may be a government plot.
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Re:
Actually, Clark Kent is an illegal alien. I'm not familiar enough with the comics to know if Superman was ever granted US citizenship, but how would Clark ever be made a citizen without having to reveal his place of origin? Or did Superman reveal his identity at some point? Or was Superman given a pass both for himself and his unknown secret identity?
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Re: Re:
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Why should he?
As each year passes, it seems like more and more of you fail to see that the power is actually in your hands. You actually have the ability to vote the turkeys out. It doesn't matter how much money is backing these men and women for advertising, it just requires the electorate to think about the things that matter and apply their vote to bring about change.
Yet you are more concerned about your right not to vote than you are about using your vote and doing something about it.
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Re: Why should he?
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Fear of the Truth
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