In Press-Rights Battle, Reporter Says Accountability's At Risk
by NPR STAFF
Freedom of the press is considered an essential ideal of American democracy.
President Obama acknowledged as much last month, when he draped a Presidential Medal of Freedom around the neck of former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee.
"With Ben in charge, The Post published the Pentagon Papers, revealing the true history of America's involvement in Vietnam, exposed Watergate [and] unleashed a new era of investigative journalism," Obama said, "holding America's leaders accountable and reminding us that our freedom as a nation rests on our freedom of the press."
But New York Times reporter James Risen says that, in terms of transparency and attitude toward the press, the Obama administration "is the worst."
"I think it's worse than the Bush administration, which I never thought I would say," Risen tells NPR's Arun Rath.
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http://www.npr.org/2013/12/15/251327122/in-press-rights-battle-reporter-says-accountability-s-at-risk