Today, as I sometimes do, I submitted a question at a National Press Club news maker event. Today, it was Labor Secretary Thomas Perez who is apparently being considered for the attorney general position.
Here's the question I submitted: "Your name has been mentioned as possible AG pick. Many are concerned about the fate of New York Times reporter James Risen and the several whistleblowers the administration has prosecuted -- more than all other administrations combined. As you know, Risen, who broke the original NSA mass surveillance story nearly ten years ago, is under threat of imprisonment to name a source. Would you as AG continue this attack on journalism and whistleblowing?"
My question didn't get asked per se, but a question about Risen was asked by the moderator, Myron Belkind that was much kinder to the administration, and didn't raise the issue of whistleblowers at all:
Myron Belkind: [around 53:00 on the C-Span video, their transcript] "Attorney General Holder says he won't send journalists to jail for doing their job, suggesting that in New York Times reporter is unlikely to spend time behind bars. Specifically he said in an interview with MSNBC, he's that I stand by what I said. No reporter is going to jail as long as i'm attorney general. Would you maintain a position, should you happen to become attorney general? Or if not, do support that position?"
Thomas Perez: "My singular focus is on the job of being at the Department of Labor. I know the attorney general very much values the role of the press as the fourth branch of government. He served as teh deputy attorney general under Janet Reno. He often participated in her weekly conferences, whether it was good news, bad news, or indifferent. He was out there with her in those press briefings. He understands the critical importance of the press in so many aspects of our life."
It should be clarified, what Holder recently said on MSNBC is: “I stand by what I have said: If a reporter is doing that which he or she does as a reporter, no reporter is going to go to jail as long as I am attorney general."
Which doesn't really say much. As Norman Solomon and Marcy Wheeler [with whom I'm associated via accuracy.org and exposefacts.org] recently wrote in the Nation: the "pivotal concern for the First Amendment hinges on what 'doing his job' is understood to mean. For the men and women who work with integrity as journalists, the job must include protecting rather than betraying confidential sources. Yet the official position of the Obama administration insists on such betrayal. In a brief to the Supreme Court in April, the Justice Department argued that the government should enforce what it called 'the longstanding common-law rule that reporters have no privilege to refuse to provide direct evidence of criminal wrongdoing by confidential sources.'"
[At 59:00] Myron Belkind: If I can ask you the last question, in the Labor Department, can they do anything about the employment situation of journalists? [laughter]
Thomas Perez: [in over the top enthusiastic tone] There are a few things that keep me up at night more than the employment situation of journalists. What we do is, we hire more journalists so that they can tell our stories. Journalists like so many others have similar challenges. I hope you continue to do the great work you are doing to shine a light. When I signed your book, I said you are the fourth branch of government. Thank you for coming today.