In case you were wondering what Nicholas Kristof thinks about the subpoena of his New York Times colleague James Risen earlier this week, he’s against it. He blogged this morning:
During the Bush administration, the issue came up several times, and there were hot disputes about whether news organizations should have revealed illegal wiretapping and other abuses. Overall, I think that history will suggest that news organizations were too restrained in reporting security abuses in that period; our problem was that we were more lapdogs than watchdogs. And if the Obama administration is going to start going after journalists, there couldn’t be a worse time to create a chilling effect. News organizations face a crisis in their business model, and the prospect of huge legal bills, hefty daily fines, and losing a reporter to jail becomes a real disincentive to the kind of edgy, aggressive reporting that we need more of. So come on, President Obama. How about a bit more change we can believe in?
