The Fourth Estate Under Renewed Attack

After viewing Spielberg's The Post, one is left with sobering realization of how far we have devolved with respect to the way in which a free and independently functioning fourth estate and it's sources are now regarded. Whistleblowers and those agencies who courageously publish their findings to the American people based upon the principle that only an informed public can properly govern itself are now vilified as 'enemies of the State' and, instead of being praised for their efforts to inform and educate, in many cases face jail time. In the latter days of the Clinton presidency and into the Bush/Chaney regime, Thomas Drake attempted to expose a secret NSA program of surveillance on American citizens (Trailblazer Project) and was summarily persecuted and eventually prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Former CIA analyst, John Kirakou, was similarly persecuted and jailed for exposing the agency's torture program in the post-911 era. 

New York Times reporter, James Risen was thwarted and eventually threatened with imprisonment for his revelation of wide spread illegal, secret, and unauthorized wiretapping of American citizens during the height of the Iraq war frenzy. The Times itself opposed Risen's series of articles until it had to relent because of the impending publication of his book which promised to expose the paper's previous resistance to the dissemination of this important story. The irony was complete as Risen received the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism for this seminal and courageous piece of reporting. Though it all, he steadfastly refused to reveal his sources and was subsequently indicted by the Obama DOJ on espionage charges which were overturned by the Supreme Court. Lest we mistake the attack on investigative journalism as the purview of one particular political party, it should be remembered that Obama invoked the Espionage Act in pursuit of journalists on more occasions than all other administrations combined.

The relentless pursuit of journalists and their sources by an unsupportive government continued in the case of Wikileaks publication of Chelsea (Bradley) Manning's exposure of military abuses and governmental misinformation in Iraq resulting in a 35 year prison term after her prosecution for espionage and sending the publisher into exile. Similarly, ex-CIA employee and intelligence contractor Edward Snowden's revelations regarding the illegal domestic and global mass surveillance programs conducted by the NSA under the direction and administration of both the Bush/Chaney and Obama regimes and the subsequent publication by Wikileaks also cast both news agency and its source as criminal entities rather than conscientious journalists attempting to inform an otherwise unsuspecting citizenry.

The Post gave one a glimpse into a time where governmental overreach and mendacity were exposed by the courageous efforts of journalists and those who inform them. The same efforts continue today but do so in a dangerous environment of attempted suppression, actual vilification, and impending threat to the role of the fourth estate as a necessary check on governmental excess and malfeasance. Daniel Ellsberg is celebrated by many as a hero who helped end the illegal, tragic, and unnecessary war in Vietnam by bringing to the light of day the decades of official governmental lies upon which our engagement was based. It is indeed sad to realize that, had Ellsberg operated in today's political climate, he too would be either banished into exile or condemned to spend the remainder of his days in indefinite detention.