3 ms·

I don't really have a stake here, and voted for Obama but he and his justice department prosecuted a record number of journalists. To quote the Washington Post

by ch4s3 6y ago

I don't really have a stake here, and voted for Obama but he and his justice department prosecuted a record number of journalists. To quote the Washington Post "Of the 13 people who have" (ever) "been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for leaking secrets, eight were arrested under Obama's administration"

slg 6y ago
Anyone have a full list of who they are counting as either the 8 or 13 in that quote? According to Wikipedia, the number of people who have been charged under the espionage act is much higher than 13. For example, there are 52 pages of people convicted under the act.[1] I guess it depends on your definition of "leaking". The relevant dictionary definition of leak is "to give out (information) surreptitiously".[2] Giving information to a foreign government should seemingly be classified as leaking so I'm not sure we should necessarily link it to either journalistic endeavors or whistleblowing. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persons_convicted_under_the_Espionage_Act_of_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persons_convicted_und... [2] - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak
- ch4s3 6y ago
  *For leaking secrets to journalists
  - slg 6y ago
    Ok, don't you think that is a pretty big qualifier to leave out? It also leads us to a question of what is a journalist? Reasonable people can look at Assange and see him as either a journalist or an agent of a foreign government.
    - ch4s3 6y ago
      It’s in the quote, except for “to journalists” which is in the article I pulled the quote from. I suppose I could have included the next two sentences.
lern_too_spel 6y ago
You're being intentionally misleading. The eight prosecuted are not journalists themselves but government employees who leaked sensitive documents to journalists. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/5/obama-and-leakerswhoaretheeightchargedunderespionageact.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/5/obama-and-le...
deleted 6y ago
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by ch4s3 6y ago

slg 6y ago

Anyone have a full list of who they are counting as either the 8 or 13 in that quote? According to Wikipedia, the number of people who have been charged under the espionage act is much higher than 13. For example, there are 52 pages of people convicted under the act.[1] I guess it depends on your definition of "leaking". The relevant dictionary definition of leak is "to give out (information) surreptitiously".[2] Giving information to a foreign government should seemingly be classified as leaking so I'm not sure we should necessarily link it to either journalistic endeavors or whistleblowing. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persons_convicted_under_the_Espionage_Act_of_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persons_convicted_und... [2] - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak

ch4s3 6y ago
*For leaking secrets to journalists
- slg 6y ago
  Ok, don't you think that is a pretty big qualifier to leave out? It also leads us to a question of what is a journalist? Reasonable people can look at Assange and see him as either a journalist or an agent of a foreign government.
  - ch4s3 6y ago
    It’s in the quote, except for “to journalists” which is in the article I pulled the quote from. I suppose I could have included the next two sentences.

lern_too_spel 6y ago

You're being intentionally misleading. The eight prosecuted are not journalists themselves but government employees who leaked sensitive documents to journalists. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/5/obama-and-leakerswhoaretheeightchargedunderespionageact.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/5/obama-and-le...

deleted 6y ago

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