Last year, we declassified the basics of the u. S. Military pot cap towers and the u. S. Militarys counterterrorism activity in yemen and somalia. It was a long and difficult process to get there. Certain people in the white house persevered. We said publicly and officially what we were doing. As far as i can tell, the world has not come to an end. That event is available on our website, cspan. Org. President obama expected to johnson this afternoon. Leftover john cspan starts at 2 00 p. M. Eastern from the rose garden. Live coverage on cspan. The syrian envoy to the u. S. Will speak in washington at 11 00 eastern, we will have live coverage. For guys like us who have been in the game for a long time, we know that there are landmines and that you have to be careful about the way you manage these things. Issues to do with abortion in race, care of, israeli relations. In other countries, i have lived in other countries, they have their own bread lines to be aware of. What a cartoonist can get aware away with an San Francisco is different from alabama. There are fewer conservatives in journalism, period. That is reflected among cartoonists as well. It is generally not a conservative thing. It tends to draw people who are more liberal. They say that bad news is good for cartoonists, gives us fodder. I would rather work harder and half less bad news and know weve are going in the right direction. I think we are not going in the right direction right now. I feel very like it is a real calling for me to get my opinions out there. Span, noteekend on c all fun and games for editorial cartoonists. Here why, saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. On book tv, the life of jesse james. 745. Day evening at 4 American History tv, decades after watergate, a look back at the saturday night massacre. Yesterday, the new America Foundation hosted a discussion looking at the Obama Administrations relationship with press. They examined a study by a former Washington Post executive editor. We will show you a portion of this event until our live coverage of the discussion on syria gets underway at 11 00 eastern. To newo, welcome america. I am the managing editor. A edit the digital magazine weekly wonk. i am here to welcome you to this event, the Obama Administration and the press. If you have not had a chance to all abouteport, it is protecting sources. Those of us who have done the job in reporting know that the sources are our lifeblood. If they come for the sources, we better speak. You are familiar with the court cases against sources, it is a leaked picture a bleak picture. Chicago putorney in a lot of guys away. When he came here to prosecute , he asserted witnessesalists are to a crime. Thank you for coming. These fellows will have a fine discussion. We are excited. Introduce the moderator, one bit of business. Webcast on cspan, please be sure to wait for the microphone. Ofr moderator, u. S. Chair privacy and indications patches. He was a general counsel and advocated for a federal shield bill. Take it away. Here a great honor to be along with these experts. I am the only person on this panel i have never heard of. [laughter] is one of those panels where Everyone Needs no introduction. Professor of journalism at the Cronkite School at arizona state. Asy well into this audience Vice President at large of the Washington Post, he was executive editor from 1991 2008, 44 years in the newsroom. 2008. 1 to director of the committee to protect journalists, the organization that published this report. Since his appointment as executive director of cpj in 2006, he has led the iodanization through a per of expansion. Establishing journalist assistance programs and efforts to defend press freedom in the digital space. Finally, wellknown to this audience from his longstanding work at the Washington Post. Senior correspondent and associate editor of the Washington Post. Also the author of Imperial Life in the emerald city. This became the basis for the movie the green zone with matt damon. A terrific ease of work. He has been the posts bureau and work at the Johns Hopkins school for advanced international studies. Withld like to start off an overview of the report we are here to discuss. The question of reporters being subpoenaed was brought up yesterday or the day before. The New York Times lost a to not have them before us to testify. It is in the report. Of as up to the point court decision. That will probably go to the ofreme court, a major test the relationships between reporters and their sources. What rights to reporters have to not be forced to give away their sources. The shield law plays into that. If there were a shield law, not taste might be different. But there is no shield law, that case might be different. But there is no shield law. I was asked to this report because i have written a couple pieces for the Washington Post. Pieces about the obama ks,inistrations war on lea the aggressive way they have been going after government officials who provide information to reporters, particularly classified information. Was asked by the committee to explore the relationship between the Obama Administration and the press. Ofthe context of the kinds art that the committee to protect journalists does worldwide. Presstection of the right to work. I was surprised with what i found. It went way beyond the war on areas. Nto other i found the administration to be remarkably controlling. I will tell you about how that happened. The report on my findings were based on several interviews several dozen interviews with reporters, News Executives, and Government Transparency advocates. Plus research that i did and did in the investigations. Those are the most complete accounts that anybody else has done. We looked at the bush and Obama Administration to make comparisons. The patriot act and the nsa. And a one sentence summary, the Obama Administrations war on leaks and efforts to control information that the news mania needs are without equal. They are in direct conflict with stated goal of making his administration the most transparent in history. I should add that i was one of the editors of the watergate story in the early 1970s. I make a comparison with knowledge. Six components to what i found. The first, Chilling Effects of the investigation and prosecution along with concerns about the nsa programs. Obama Administration Officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Every signal journalist i talked to said that that is the case with their source in the dealnment, whether they with classified information, but especially if it involves classified information. Six Government Employees and 2 Government Contractors have been prosecuted since 2009 for leaks of alleged classified information to the press. It has been done under a 1917 espionage act enacted during world war i to punish people for spying for foreign entities. Here, we have government officials talking to reporters who are prosecuted under that. There are only three such prosecutions in the 90 years when theyuntil 2009 began during the Obama Administration. In several of these investigations, probably the most frightening thing for government officials, the Justice Department and the fbi were successful in secretly subpoenaing and seizing email traffic between different organizations and news outlets. There were decisions made by the Justice Department after an outcry from the news media over those cases. They still allow the attorney general to refuse to notify news media about communication records and still contain an exception for any leaked information that the government considers harmful to National Security. That is a big loophole that you could drive a truck for. Th rough. Also hasd legislation a similarly broad exception for National Security information. It would require a judge to make a final decision rather than leaving it to the attorney general. Congressional passage is still very much in doubt. Also in doubt is how we define a journalist by law. In the digital age, that is very broad. Anybody can commit journalism. That joel mayn alk about, defining who journalist is currently two government licensing a journalist. Saying you are a journalist but you are not a journalist depending on the action they want to take. Reporters told me they worry about compromising their sources contract when their contact could be traced. Many sources will no longer talk to them at all. Were not just talking about these investigations, there are other investigations where they have for tonight then Lie Detector Test given to government officials suspected of talking to the press. Reporters do not want to get their sources in trouble. 2, the Insider Threat program. In the afternoon aftermath of manning, the Insider Threat program. Employees have been monitored and report any suspected Insider Threat activity which includes relations with the press. The director of the project of government secrecy is one of the leading Government Transparency advocates in washington. He said that this has created internal surveillance and heightened paranoia, making people conscious of contacts with the public has. A third issue, the controlling they have what they call unauthorized contact with the press is discouraged. They make clear that they have a president do not want any kind of leaks to the news media, not just classified information. Reportersquiries from are refilled referred to Public Affairs officials who are unresponsive and hostile. They sometimes refuse to provide reporters Public Information that well have a right to. The Government Transparency that president obama has promised has turned out to be a Public Relations strategy honed during creating government websites and social media to dispense favorable information generated by his administration while restricting the government exposure to Accountability Program by the press. They are full of government taken byontent, photos the press photographer while all other photographers are banned. They produced videos and even a weekst called west wing that are closed to journalists. Blogs,y obama aides on twitter, facebook, and social media to promote administration views. The former cnn reporter and now director of the school of Public Affairs at gw told me that the administration is using social media to end run news media completely. Dialogue with the public isnt is good, but if used for propaganda and to avoid journalists, it is a severity slope a slippery slope. The third issue is excessive classification. Reporters call somebody up with a routine question, it turns out that the information is classified. Even though there seems to be no good reason of it. The administration has taken credit for declassifying and posting on a new Intelligence Community website some of the courteously secret documents regarding nsa surveillance programs. Only after revelations by the press and stories based on documents like i ever sold in documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Actedministration has not on a report recommending specific steps to take to carry to the president s aim reduce overclassification. This would free government officials to discuss more of the public distance with the press. The fifth issue is the failure to approve the failure the freedom of information act process. They have made little progress on another of the president s promises a directive he tod in january 2009 improve government requests. Ness to foia advocates have found that too foiadepartments too many requests. Or demand expensive excessive fulfill them. An Associated Press survey found requestsnumber of foia from the press that were turned down on the grounds of National Security or internal deliberation had increased during the Obama Administration. More than 80 prominent organizations that advocate for transparency met here in washington last week to work on recommendations for the Obama Administration to make foia work better. I have talked to some other leaders, they are worried about whether the administration will listen. Issue, the treatment of whistleblowers. President obama has said he supports encouraging and protecting government whistleblowers who reveal bureaucratic abuse. He and his administration have drawn a distinction between bat and revelations to the press about government policies. They punished with investigations and firings. He signed the whistleblower act in 2012, along with a policy aimed at protecting the retaliation of government whistleblowers. The same time, his administration won an Appellate Court decision that takes away from federal employees and National Security positions the right to appeal actions by their agencies which could include retaliation for whistleblowing. Of someecution whistleblowers as spies under the 1917 espionage act leaves the president s position unclear. Lastly, the international implications. Posedition to the threat to foreign journalists by nsa surveillance theyre not supposed to supply spy on americans, but they can spy on the can and of nonamerican citizens. Administrations policies provide a questionable example for other countries at a time when this administration has been advocating for freedom and the rest of the world. President obama faces many challenges during his remaining time in office. The outcome of which will shape his legacy. One objective he could accomplish without outside opposition is failing is fulfilling his first promise, making his Administration Transparent by opening his closed doors. That is the summary. Make you so much. I would like to invite anyone tweeting about this to use the hashtag obamaandthepress. Pullingally great work, threads into a fabric that exposes a lot about the thrust of the administration. For many years, there seem to be etente between government and the press. We recognize that the government had secrets to keep, we would try to get them. The ones that were relevant and should be published, we went. We would. It seems in your report, you are talking about administration that has stepped over a line, chilling the ability of members to speak to the press. Two things to say about that. The decision by the Supreme Court which made it unique in the world. Administration, you can always punish us and our sources afterward. Secondly, 9 11. A lot of attitudes changed. Including the whole balance between what you were talking about the revelations of government activity and National Security. Duringwith that balance the Bush Administration huawei published stories that require conversation with administration during the Bush Administration when we published stories that require conversation with the administration. They continue during this administration in a different atmosphere. The third historical thing is, when obama came into office, they were put under great pressure by the intelligence agencies. They were upset by the previous t stories in the New York Times. They put pressure on the administration to do something about that. Investigations begun under bush both democrats and republicans on the hill. Also, i believe that the president himself, he has not really spoken about this. I believe he has he said something that he did not want secrets revealed that put our boys at risk. I think he has a strong bend towards secrecy. Rajiv, joel . Pretty compelling. It is. A point he makes, particularly as an editor overseeing a publication of some of the stories over time. You look back at the cia black sites story, the new york time reporting on warrantless wiretapping. The Bush Administrations responses to those. As well as decisions and discussions that led up to the publication of the stories. Particularly, how previous administrations have responded to stories they have not liked, they have fought have compromised National Security. Cases, most other increase administrations, there have been expressions of disgust. Been some cursory investigations. Nothing of the sort that we are seeing now. When you look at some of the investigations that have taken place in recent years and you compare them to some of the previous stories, it seems like it is pennyante stuff. Going after tom drake at the ns a, which you write about. Even the verizon case. In the grand scheme of fame of things, if you talk to experts, those stories do not impact onningful american National Security. And yet, those are some of the cases being pursued with particular vigor. There really has been a fundamental change, in my v