Sheryl Attkisson – Doing One’s Job - the Right Way – Might Mean being ostracized by One's Peers - or Worse

When the Obama Administration had targeted AP and Fox News Reporter, James Rosen, for essentially working with sources, they criminalized journalism – using the 1917 Espionage Act, according to Michael Barone at the National Review.

The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime. That might cover Rosen’s source.

Section 793(g) is a conspiracy count that says that anyone who conspires to help the source do that has committed the same crime. That would be the reporter.

It sounds as though this law criminalizes a lot of journalism. You might wonder how such a law ever got passed and why, for the last 90 years, it has very seldom produced prosecutions and investigations of journalists.

What of Freedom of the Press – apparently it depends on the administration and how it chooses to deal with a press corp that might appear hostile to its policies. Understanding that the manner, in which the public had perceived journalist in the past, was in line with Superman – those individuals who would go to any length to upend corruption in high and low places. That had changed over the past decades, with the political divisions between two identified parties becoming so distinct that the media, in most cases, holding progressive or liberal point of view, became less believable – it hammered away endlessly on one administration, and looked the other way for another – one whose policies more closely aligned with the career as a whole. There are exceptions to the rule of course, and they would be few and far between.

The spotlight is now on one Sheryl Attkisson - , not due to her sources, but, with the same criticisms that the other aforementioned news agencies have broadcast or published regarding mistakes, scandals of the current administration, this particular CBS reporter, has earned the ire of the White House – for doing something that every American strives for – their job, passionately and without regard to stretching the truth to fit the narrative.

According to Politico, this has brought attention to the Emmy winning reporter, who, in all fairness, reported on both the Bush and Obama administrations. However, the difference between the two are stark – the Bush Administration constantly under attack by the press, then President Bush appeared to retreat, there were no bumbling and stumbling press secretaries, some sharp barbs – the public noticed, and a relentless press drove a presidency into the basement. Compare to the Obama Administration where there is never an unkind word, in print and broadcast except for a few lone voices, reporting on stories that would have and should have become front page, evening news, ad nasuem for weeks – had it been an Administration of another political identity. Therefore, when one is in a profession where the majority are of one political mindset- the lone-wolf who actually does their job, appears to be biased.

Herein lays the danger – administrations come and go – and although hard to believe that a Libertarian leaning, or Republican administration would in any way suppress the press – what if the shoe were on the other foot? – The press, as a whole, has lost the public trust when it comes to politics – now faced with losing more, their rights to work in their chosen field , one finds them (as a group), cannibalizing one of their own, who isn’t towing the party line.

IRS, The Administration, and the Half-Hearted Press - What can the Press do to Save Itself rather than the Administration?

Unsolved Mysteries Piling Up - President Obama will insure a full internal investigation of the IRS - image: PatDollard.com

The IRS, being in the spotlight these past few weeks, has now been pinned by the Washington Post as a recent report noted that one anonymous IRS agent, for fear of retaliation, suggested that the orders to target political groups came from the “top down”. Those that understand that the targeting of specific groups for political gain by the Obama Administration makes Watergate and Richard Nixon pale by comparison.

To date the White House has suggested that they will get to the bottom of this issue, along with a host of other issues, which have been piling up with some rapidity.

Over at CNN, however, a story on Senator Rand Paul, who suggested that he had heard there as a revealing memo regarding the IRS scandal, is being made more than light of – especially if one views the photo of Paul, as well as the context of the article. It is as if Paul is deluded by either political partisanship and/or by some weird conspiracy theory. One has to recall that the man who could articulate and rebuff the concept of drones in the Senate, is one who may have the wherewithal to know if he had “heard” there as a memo that would cause further problems for the administration hanging about or not. The fact of the matter is that given the inability of the Administration to handle or control the mounting scandals make it entirely possible that a memo was leaked and that the Congress/Senate has a copy. CNN-Deflect, Deflect, Deflect.

Paul, for his part is a Libertarian Leaning Republican and nothing that has come to light in the last few days would be simpatico with any Libertarian, nor should it be with anyone who has a gasp on the constitution – abuse of power on multiple levels is being investigated by the House.

However, the love affair between the Press and the Administration is beginning to show some cracks – after insisting that they were not aware of the situation – CBS is reporting that evidence has emerged that the Obama administration did, indeed, know of the IRS targeting during the 2012 camping.

One has to wonder, have the blinders come off, or is this story so big, that the press stands to lose any credibility it has left, and must run it – no administration lasts forever, that has to be weighing on those that look to the future of media.