Journalists Threatened by White House Staffer?

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Former White House press secretary Gibbs admits he was told to deny facts and cover up for the drone program when he was press secretary for the president. Bob Woodward, the award winning journalist whose reporting brought down Richard Nixon says a senior White House staffer told him he'd regret his reporting on Obama and the sequester. Now, Lanny Davis, a liberal reporter, says his editor was told by the White House that if they continued running his column there would be restrictions on their access to the White House. I am reminded, when reading all this, of a story during the first Obama term on MediaMatter's involvement with the White House. Emails showed that MediaMatters enjoyed a weekly phone call with an unnamed White House offical on a weekly basis and in those weekly phone calls they were told what 'narrative' the White House expected from MediaMatters and the press at large. There was some bragging on MediaMatter's part in these emails, saying that they largely wrote the MSMs copy on the issues based on what the White House wanted said. Even further back in the first term of President Obama I am reminded of how a newly elected president, who promised transparancey and open access to the White House, forbid FOXNews access to a press briefing. Thankfully, the other networks refused to play along and stood with FOXNews and their right to be present at the briefing. A free and unhindered press is necessary to a free Republic, where citizens are told the truth and from the information they receive on the issues, can make informed choices on who and what they vote for. We no longer have this privilege in America when the president and his adiviors can intimidate and punish the press and dictate what is said by journalists.