“The very media, founded on communications and automata, especially television, can communicate illusion as well as reality, and that is all right as long as we know the difference.” Dr. William O. Baker, patriot genius and former leader of research at Bell Labs from a speech at Northwestern University, July 12, 1976.

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” – Barack Obama, from WhiteHouse.gov

Some folks in the mainstream media, which was largely responsible for building up Barack Obama from nothing and then provided cover for him for so long while he was hacking away at the freedoms and institutions of our great country are beginning to realize Obama is a threat to them. Join the club. But what took you so long?

Last weekend, Susan Page, USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief admitted,

“My big fear is that this administration has been more restrictive and more challenging to the press, more dangerous to the press, really, than any administration in American history in terms of legal investigations and so on.”[i]

The Transparency Illusion.

The description of Sharyl Attkisson’s new blockbuster book due for release on November 4th says,

“Americans are at the mercy of powerful figures in business and government who are virtually unaccountable. The Obama Administration in particular has broken new ground in its monitoring of journalists, intimidation and harassment of opposition groups, and surveillance of private citizens.”[ii]

Attkisson is a former Emmy award-winning, Washington-based correspondent for CBS News.

Describing why she decided to write her new book, which is titled, Stonewalled: My Fight For the Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation and Harassment in Obama’s Washington , Attkisson said,

“It’s a look at the increasing attempts by political figures, special interests, and corporations to manipulate the images that the public sees in the news and in the rest of the media. I’ve never seen a tougher clampdown on freedom of the press and I think it’s important that someone stand and say these things and speak out about ‘em.…I think the public needs to learn to watch the news much as you do a TV commercial. You need to start thinking ‘why is that story airing, who pushed it, what special interest might be behind it and am I getting the full story.’”[iii]

“This is the most transparent administration in history, and I can document how that is the case.” – Barack Obama February, 2013, Google’s Fireside Hangout.

Here is the opening of a letter to President Obama from the Society of Professional Journalists dated July 8, 2014:

“Mr. President, You recently expressed concern that frustration in the country is breeding cynicism about democratic government. You need look no further than your own administration for a major source of that frustration – politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies.”[iv]

Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the New York Times commented on the secrecy within the Obama Administration in an interview with Al Jazeera News. This was on January 21, 2104 before she got the hatchet at the Times:

“I would say it is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of the Times during George W. Bush’s first term.

“The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It’s on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with.”

The interviewer then follows up and asks, “And do you think this comes directly from the president?”

Jill Abramson: “I would think that it would have to.”[v]

In a 2013 appearance with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation Abramson said,

“The Times and our readers are quite concerned about the six active criticism leak cases that the Obama administration has pursued. That’s more than all the other administrations combined. And, you know, we are concerned that the process of news gathering is being criminalized.”[vi]

Lara Logan, an investigative journalist for CBS’s 60 Minutes gave a very public speech in 2013 where she said,

“I knew that we were being lied to and I knew that the American people were being misled.”

“…officials in the administration love to tell us today that there are only fifty al Qaeda left in Afghanistan. And the impression that we’re given is that they are one drone strike away from obliteration. And that’s just simply not true. They know it’s not true.”

“…we kept hearing the same thing time and time again is that you know there is no political reason for anybody to be talking to you about this right now because if we talk about al Qaeda in Afghanistan doesn’t that undermine the argument for leaving?”[vii]

While I’m glad some in the media are finally waking up to the stonewalling, the lies and the deceit of this administration, I‘m afraid a lot of damage has already been done to our country. The American people need to wake up too before it’s too late.

Sincerely,

An American

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Winston Churchill

“If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?” –John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

[i] http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-usa-today-washington-bureau-chief-rips-obamas-destruction-free-press/#p6Qxm8TzhzuhhP4J.99

[ii] http://sharylattkisson.com/stonewalled-book

[iii]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzMf2ETp5X8&feature=youtu.be&list=UUvVeMsVltaaACXhlvLoFstA

[iv] http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1253

[v] http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/talk-to-al-jazeera/interviews-and-more/2014/1/21/jill-abramson-talkstojohnseigenthaler.html

[vi] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/02/jill-abramson-doj-eric-holder-meeting_n_3375035.html

[vii] http://media.wrko.com/a/64591441/lara-logan-cbs-news-reporter-gives-a-bone-chilling-speech-about-al-qaeda.htm