Very Very Bad Development

The media might be biased and corrupt but at least they were relatively in the know, since people talked to them.  Now, they are biased, corrupt and...in the dark?

The CEO of the Associated Press told an audience Wednesday that the Department of Justice has succeeded in muzzling government employees from talking to AP reporters in the weeks since the seizure of AP phone records was revealed.

“What I learned from our journalists should alarm everyone in this room and I think should alarm everyone in this country. The actions of the DOJ against AP are already having an impact beyond the specifics of this particular case,” AP CEO Gary Pruitt told an audience at the National Press Club. “Some of our longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking to us, even about stories that aren’t about national security. In some cases, government employees that we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone, and some are reluctant to meet in person.”

 This is very, very bad.  One of the fundamental foundations of our freedom in the US has been a vigorous investigative media, but if they are shut out, all manner of government corruption could go unreported, which is precisely how governments get more authoritarian, when there is no accountability via reputational cost and public scrutiny.  This is how the thugocracies of the world operate.  Hope and Change, Baby!!