To put it mildly, the Obama administration’s attempt to intimidate and, indeed, to shut down any investigative journalistic effort it doesn’t like makes a mockery of President Obama’s pledge at the beginning of his first term to head the most transparent administration in history.

Transparency means not only an open administration, but more so — much more so — an administration that is appreciative of the place of a free press in a free society.

Are you cynical about the press?

Ask citizens in Syria what they wouldn’t give for an open investigation — in Syria, in Arabic, by Syrian journalists, in Syrian newspapers — into the crimes of the current Syrian regime.