Okay. So i think what this case illustrates in the broader trends that we were talking about are some threats to press freedom, but i think its important to put that into a global context. And there are many countries, including russia, that have far worse press freedom records and where journalists are imprisoned, journalists are killed and their murders are never investigated. Indeed, in most cases of george journalist murders, nine out of ten are never investigated. Several outstanding in russia as well. We have to keep this in perspective. I mean, there are threats certainly to the free practice of journalism. Luckily we live in a country that has rule of law and due process. In many countries those things are missing. Lets keep this in perspective and not let this become an excuse for say authoritarian governments to use in their crackdown on press freedom. Just in the same light, nor should we let the fact that authoritarian regimes exist give us an excuse to brow beat journalist
Starling is. If were just talking about the nsa, there are so many of them. And they are so technical, that i would be really surprised if the highlevel people know the details of more than a small number of the most major programs. I think you would be wrong about that. Yeah . I think so. Many could not perhaps describe the engineering details, but i would be surprised if there are more than a handful of programs that are not youre right, but there are i mean, impossible to count how many programs there are in the nsa. We can talk thousands, and probably more than thousands. And i just imagine its beyond the capacity of any individual to have significant knowledge about more than a handful of these thousands of programs. But i agree with bob dietz, and i agree with you. But the answer is, work the low level, the mid level, and the top, if you can. And youre going to get a total universe portrait. Anybody else we have a couple of minutes here before theres a coffee and martini break. M
Coverage of the pennsylvania governors debate between incumbent governor republican tom corbett and democrat tom wolf. Thursday at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan, live coverage of the noi house debate for the 17th district between democrat cheri bustos and bobby schilling. Later at 9 00, live coverage of the illinois governors debate with democrat pat quinn and republican bruce rauner. And friday night, the wisconsin governors debate between republican scott walker and democrat mary burke. Saturday night on cspan at 8 00 eastern, live coverage of the Iowa Senate Debate between democrat bruce braley and state senator joni ernst. And sunday, the michigan governors debate between rick snyder and democrat mark schauer. More than 100 debates for the control of congress. Now, more about the relationship between the government and the press. In august, reuters news president steve add ler spoke about restrictions put on journalists by the Obama Administration. Whistleblowers, National Security a
Boards for the west point center for oral history and the renewed hope foundation. He serves as president of the Nonprofit Organization esprit de corps, which educates the public about veterans affairs, our main topic today. Please join me in welcoming james. Thank you. So, this is the plan. I am going to turn to each of the speakers and let them introduce themselves because their bios also explain why they are on this panel. They are each going to talk for 10 or 15 minutes or so, and then were going to open it up for general discussion. And this is my favorite kind of event. I am not selling something. There is no real agenda. This is an exploration of ideas. I think today we earn our moniker of think tank. Before we get started, i just want to take a few minutes about i chose this issue and why i think it is important. At the notion of philanthropy in national do we even think about that . There are a couple of reasons. Having been involved in philanthropic pursuits, particularly reg
Around us and use social media because thats different than the secrecy issues we are talking about. I think that is as much as it is vexing for us, i think its probably ok. Its a little weird for the media to make the case that politicians should have to engage with us to get to the public. Im not sure that would be a winning argument that i would be willing to make. Im not a big fan of handout journalism. The most Productive Work we do is when we ask hard questions and we try to get under the surface to find out whats really going on. The politicians will hand out press releases and its not our job just to take stenography and provide them to the public and to go deeper. There have always been a whistle stop tours and a fireside chats to engage directly with the electorate. This is just a way to do it from the comfort of your chair. Right. And full disclosure i think , nabj did invite members of the administration to participate in this panel, and as far as we can tell they chose not