> silence even the possibility of dissent that honest journalism provides The crime being prosecuted is not dissent. Dissent enjoys nearly unlimited legal prot

> silence even the possibility of dissent that honest journalism provides The crime being prosecuted is not dissent. Dissent enjoys nearly unlimited legal protection in the U.S. The crime being prosecuted is the disclosure of classified information by government employees. This is often accompanied by, but completely independent of, criticizing the government. We can and have prosecuted people for leaking secrets that made the government look good, i.e. people who divulged too much detail about the Bin Laden assassination. If you voluntarily become an agent of the government, you voluntarily give away your right to criticize it without consequences. We haven't had a draft in a hell of a long time; there's really nothing wrong with that. Stop equating dissent and disclosure of classified information. They are completely different things. You can criticize the government without sharing its secrets; you can share its secrets in a way that glorifies it.