The reference to “the end of American democracy” (in relation to the government assault on journalism) in the article below is arguably not hyperbole. In the following excerpt from the discussion between former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges and Julian Assange‘s spouse Stella Assange (see video below), Hedges — speaking of Obama’s novel use of the 1917 Espionage Act — said this [emphasis mine]:

“Obama’s assault on civil liberties was worse than Bush. And he went after anyone who leaked Kiriakou and all sorts of others. And that, of course, is the lifeblood of journalism. So we need people on the inside with a conscience who are willing to share information about malfeasance, crimes, lies that the government is committing. That’s how we do our work. And because of wholesale surveillance … and that’s why Snowden fled …  they know immediately who’s connecting with journalists. And I’ve been visiting, I visited and I write letters to Daniel Hale. This is just a really sad story. This young Air Force officer with incredible integrity and courage and saw that in the drone attacks, it was up to 90% of the victims were civilians, including children. And then he was sitting in these rooms where the drone operators had this jocular contempt, you know, killing … they knew they were killing children and they were calling them “pint-sized terrorists.” I mean, it was just sickening. And he exposed that, and he’s now sitting in Marion, Illinois, in a high security … used to be the highest security prison in the country, now we have ADX Florence, Colorado. But they have him in one of these management control units, which replicates, I mean, he has no…and it’s in the middle of nowhere. So if I visit, I have to fly to St. Louis and drive 3 hours down to Illinois in literally these cornfields, I mean, because, of course, they don’t want you to visit.

“So in order for us to do our work, we need people like Daniel Hale. And it was really Obama who shut down any of that connection. And I can’t remember, it was either nine or eleven times he used it. And so I still have friends with the New York Times who do investigative journalism, but they have told me repeatedly that there is no investigative journalism now within the government, with the inner workings of government, because everyone’s too frightened to talk, because they they’re they can immediately be traced.”
— from complete transcript of discussioon.

See discussion in full, here:

“JULIAN ASSANGE AND THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY”

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