Here I am on a Friday afternoon about to lose all my progressive followers again... but it's time we stop pretending the Obama administration was some beacon of press freedom 1/
Obama used the Espionage Act more than all other presidents combined. And he used it twice to directly target journalists. One of those was a Fox News reporter who was labeled a "co-conspirator" 2/ washingtonpost.com/local/justice-…
The Obama Justice Dept also secretly seized work *and personal* phone records of 20 AP journalists working on a story about a CIA operation 3/ nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/…
Obama never called Fox News the "enemy of the people," but he did publicly disparage them, and his administration tried to deny them access to the press pool until rival journalists pushed back 4/ cbsnews.com/news/president…
Press pool access came up again a few months ago, when the Trump admin barred CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Fox's Bret Baier defended her, and reminded us of when CNN defended Fox against Obama 5/
Trump's rhetoric is toxic and dangerous, no doubt. His influence (so far) is mostly public facing. Obama wasn't saying things that threatened freedom of the press, but he was absolutely doing them.
It's what people in power do, and it transcends party. END?/
It's what people in power do, and it transcends party. END?/
Hey, so this went places. One thing: The point is not "A Dem did it too" or a game of "who's worse?" Attacking the press is an ongoing problem. And the fact that Obama didn't want reporters digging around his WH either might mean the press is adversarial to power, not your team.
Awesome so many of you decided to follow! Now, this has happened once or twice before & I've got to warn you: despite my attempts to be level-headed on this crazy website, at some point I'm going to say something you disagree with. Hope you'll understand
This has come up a lot in the comments: using "progressive" as a synonym for "liberal" or "democrat" wasn't the most precise language. 
Got to all of your replies today. Broke the postgame off into a separate thread 👇
