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Published on 22 Jan 2017
After
eight years in office, what media legacy is Barack Obama leaving
behind, and what might it mean for journalists in Trump's America?
When Obama first took office in 2008, he promised the media unprecedented openness in government - music to the ears of those coming out of the Bush years. However, with a crackdown on whistleblowers, leakers and journalists, plus the Justice Department spearheading more prosecutions under the Espionage Act - a law passed 100 years ago - than all previous US administrations combined, has Obama been let off lightly?
Obama has absolutely handed Trump, not just a road map, the keys to the kingdom. How to clamp down on the press.
David Zurawik, media critic, The Baltimore Sun
"It's really been a tremendous disappointment. The Obama administration started out really strong and he said all the right things about the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] and transparency and government openness but in the end, eight years later, we've seen a huge number of FOIA requests that have been gone unanswered, an incredible number of prosecutions of leakers under the Espionage Act and there's been a tremendous amount of pressure on the journalists as a result," says Lynn Oberlander, general counsel of media operations at First Look Media.
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When Obama first took office in 2008, he promised the media unprecedented openness in government - music to the ears of those coming out of the Bush years. However, with a crackdown on whistleblowers, leakers and journalists, plus the Justice Department spearheading more prosecutions under the Espionage Act - a law passed 100 years ago - than all previous US administrations combined, has Obama been let off lightly?
Obama has absolutely handed Trump, not just a road map, the keys to the kingdom. How to clamp down on the press.
David Zurawik, media critic, The Baltimore Sun
"It's really been a tremendous disappointment. The Obama administration started out really strong and he said all the right things about the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] and transparency and government openness but in the end, eight years later, we've seen a huge number of FOIA requests that have been gone unanswered, an incredible number of prosecutions of leakers under the Espionage Act and there's been a tremendous amount of pressure on the journalists as a result," says Lynn Oberlander, general counsel of media operations at First Look Media.
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