QOTD: Ari Melber
by digby
I’ve been tough on some of the MSNBC shows recently for being a little bit too, shall we say, close to the administration on these NSA leaks. I have also singled out Chris Hayes for doing good work on this but neglected to mention that Ari Melber has been a stalwart civil libertarian throughout. Today’s commentary is a good example:
Holding classified information for a reporter is not the same as swallowing a bag of heroin for a drug dealer. Not only is that common sense – it’s the law. If simply possessing classified information were a crime, I’d be speaking to you from a room full of criminals. In our newsroom, reporters and staff possess classified information and unauthorized government disclosures and materials. Very few significant news stories are based on press releases alone. If you report on the government, sometimes you report on what it’s not telling the public.
I would think this should be obvious to any journalists. But it’s not.