64% of reporters say Feds spying on their email, calls, online searches

2/6/2015

BY PAUL BEDARD | FEBRUARY 5, 2015 | 5:28 PM 

In a survey of investigative reporters that makes Richard Nixon’s enemies list look like child's play, nearly seven in 10 said they believe that the Obama administration has spied on their phone calls, emails and online searches.

According to a Pew Research Center survey of 454 media figures, 64 percent “believe that the U.S. government has probably collected data” from their calls and email and eight in 10 believe just being a journalist jumps the chance Uncle Sam is spying on them.

The survey follows multiple reports of actual spying by federal officials on reporters, and the White House’s effort to track down those who leak information to reporters despite long-forgotten promises to be the most transparent administration ever.

RELATED: NSA reform shadows Obama's cybersecurity agenda

Still, most reporters said that they continue to plug away.

“Just 14 percent say that in the past 12 months, such concerns have kept them from pursuing a story or reaching out to a particular source, or have led them to consider leaving investigative journalism altogether,” said the survey of members of Investigative Reporters and Editors by Pew in association with Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

It has, though, prompted about half to change how they do their job, by inventing new ways to store and collect their information.

That’s in part because they don’t have much faith in online security offered by their employers or internet service providers.

RELATED: Peter King: Surveillance of Muslim community vital for national security

Read the full report here.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.

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