Freedom of the Press?

The Bush administration’s preoccupation with serving reporters with subpoenas could have long-lasting effects beyond Washington.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


James Risen should know a thing or two about government spying on Americans. Three years ago he, along with New York Times colleague Eric Lichtblau, exposed the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Today he finds himself a subject of one of the Bush administration’s leak investigations—and, ironically, what he suspects is a warrantless effort to trace his communications with sources.

This past January Risen got a subpoena demanding that he appear before a grand jury convened by the US Attorney in Alexandria, Virginia, to testify about the identity of the sources for a chapter in his 2006 book, State of War, dealing with cia operations against Iran. (He hasn’t testified, and his refusal to cooperate could land him in jail.) “One of the great ironies is that I may be the only one who has to go to jail out of all this,” Risen told me, “while Congress is trying to give immunity to the telephone companies.”

Contacts of his have also been called to testify: “The intimidation begins with the document itself,” says one who asked to remain anonymous. “‘You are commanded to appear’—that will get your attention. It’s delivered by a couple fbi guys. The trick is, too, they can impoverish you. You should expect to pay minimum 10 grand” for the lawyer needed to prepare for a grand jury appearance.

How did Justice track down Risen’s contacts? Those who appeared before the grand jury were shown what they were told were Risen’s phone records—even though neither Risen nor his newspaper have actually been subpoenaed for those records. Risen and the Times suspect that the government is monitoring Risen’s communications using some other means, perhaps a “pen register” device that records the numbers called from a particular phone. A pen register does not require a warrant (though it requires approval by a judge).

The Bush administration’s preoccupation with journalists and their sources may have long-lasting effects beyond Washington. Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, notes that a 2007 study found that news outlets around the country have seen a fivefold increase since 2001 in the number of subpoenas seeking information on confidential sources. Press freedom advocates have been pushing a federal shield law for journalists (a version passed in the House and at press time another was pending in the Senate). But the measure has a national security exception that could leave the likes of Risen and Lichtblau unprotected—and Bush has vowed to veto it if it passes.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate