Today, in a ceremony covered by the White House Press pool, President Obama will sign the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act into law, joined by six members and three generations of the slain journalist’s family.

Named in honor of the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and decapitated by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 2002, this act gives the  U.S. State Department more latitude to examine worldwide press freedom in its’ annual human rights report. 

Pearl’s father, Judea, said before leaving Los Angeles for Washington:

Violators of press freedom throughout the world now know that they will be closely watched.   This is something our son Danny fought for all his life.

Also present for the White House ceremony will be Pearl’s widow, Mariane, and their son, Adam Daniel, who will mark his eighth birthday on May 28; his mother, Ruth; and sisters Michelle and Tamara.

Adam was born three months after the killing of his father, killed by cowardly al-Qaida Terrorists while pursuing an investigative story on their financial network.

The State Department will have the authority to identify countries in which there are violations of press freedom, determine the extent of that government’s involvement, and report whatever actions these governments have taken to protect the media and make sure those who attack or murder journalists are prosecuted.

The point man on the bill was U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), according to Judea Pearl, an Israel-born UCLA professor emeritus in computer science who is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts in artificial intelligence.  Additional key sponsors were Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) in the House and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) in the Senate, who said the following:

In many parts of the world, the freedom of the press is the last – or even the only – safeguard against the complete erosion of all human rights.  With this bill, we pay tribute to Daniel’s life and his work by shedding a bright light on this repression, and hope to prevent this sort of tragedy from ever happening again.

So, today Obama is signing a bill to combat repression of the Media in other countries?  How about in America?  Remember last week?

On May 11th, the White House posted on its website a video featuring Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan speaking “in her own words” about her personal history and perspective.

At “Baghdad Bob” Gibb’s White House Press Conference on the 12th, a reporter asked the following:

It appears that Solicitor General Kagan did an interview yesterday right after the president’s announcement.   You’ve now posted that on the White House Web site. Who did the interview? And can I have one?

I think it’s — I think it’s on the website if you want to see it, stammered Gibbs.

The reporter responded, quite torqued off:

So a White House staffer is interviewing her.

Gibbs said yes, and the reporter asked if Kagan would like to do another interview.

She has — she’s not told me that, no, replied Gibbs.

The reporter replied:

Tell her we’re deeply frustrated.

Evidently, even noted Liberal reporter Annnndrea Mitchell NBC News (Thanks, Rush.) was whining.  On Wednesday, she suggested on air that the White House was “crossing a number of lines here” with the Kagan video.   

The decision to post an interview with Kagan conducted by a government employee, Jesse Lee, Online Programs Director for President Barack Obama,  not a journalist, is in line with his administration’s policy of regularly using new media tools to go around traditional media. 

 This is called propaganda.

Lee began perfecting his skill in disseminiating Liberal Propaganda by running a popular Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) blog in 2003. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) hired him  in 2006 to run The Gavel, the representative’s YouTube generation-friendly blog. In the months leading up to the 2008 presidential campaign, he was the head of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) rapid-response team., getting the Campaign’s Talking Points out to the Far Left base, in Internet Cafes and parents’ basements across the nation.

When the petulant man-child was elected President of the United States by the bamboozled 52 % in 2008, Lee “moved on up” with the rest of the entourage.

Meanwhile, Obama has not held a full-blown solo press conference since last July, when he summoned the sycophantic press corps to the White House to discuss health care. 

He held a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai last Wednesday at which two questions from the U.S. press and two questions from the Afghan press were allowed. He also came to the back of Air Force One last month to talk to the media, and he made an appearance at the daily White House briefing in February. 

Earlier this month, Baghdad Bob made fun of a reporter who complained that none of those qualify as a traditional press conference. Gibbs weakly responded that Obama took eight questions at the Nuclear Security Summit on April 13. 

When asked earlier in the year about the lack of press conferences, Gibbs fired back that Obama had previously been accused of being “overexposed.” 

Bob, those were all photo ops.  There’s a big difference. 

Please, don’t get me wrong.  It was a horrible act of cowardice that ended the young life of Daniel Pearl.  Something should be done to help protect the lives of American Journalists.  But, a bunch of numbers on an official White House Report is not going to accomplish anything, except give everyone involved a warm, fuzzy feeling. 

Given his practice of bypassing the same sycophantic Main Stream Media who were co-conspirators in the duping of the gullible voters who put him in office, I would offer the opinion that if he wants to honor the legacy of brave journalists like Daniel Pearl, he and his Administration should engage in the transparency they promised when Obama was elected President.

I am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Sources:  jta.org, cbsnews.com, whorunsgov.com (from the Washington Post), fox news.com