Manning Sentence Commuted–No Thanks to Corporate Media Opinion

The editorial boards of the most influential newspapers in the United States—the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today—published nothing in support of Manning. When an outlet did register an opinion, as with the New York Post (1/13/17), it was to adamantly warn against commuting or pardoning her.

The only sympathetic commentaries we found in major papers over the past year were in the LA Times (9/16/16)—an op-ed by N+1 associate editor Richard Beck that called, not for a pardon itself, exactly, but for “widespread, coordinated support for a full pardon” for Manning—and a piece by Michael Tracey (“Let Chelsea Manning Go Free”) that appeared in the New York Daily News (1/17/17) 45 minutes before the commutation was announced. (The paper’s editorial board retorted later that day with “Leniency for a Traitor: Obama Clemency for Criminal Leaker Manning Is Unjust.”)

On the reporting side, it’s worth noting that the New York Times’ Charlie Savage has devoted a considerable amount of time over the past few months to documenting Manning’s difficulties as a trans woman in a men’s prison (1/13/17)—and reporting, for example, her placement in solitary confinement as punishment for a suicide attempt (9/23/16).

But on the editorial side—the department charged with driving popular opinion—support for mercy for Manning was nonexistent. This is especially striking, given that her exposure of government secrets through WikiLeaks was the basis for countless media reports (FAIR.org, 12/4/12)—including revelations about a 2007 US military attack in Iraq that killed two Reuters journalists. Manning’s conviction under the Espionage Act—even though she had given secrets to media, not an enemy power—posed a chilling threat to all media sources who seek to expose government wrongdoing.

The Washington Post hasn’t always been this stingy with appeals for leniency. In 2009–10, they ran not one, not two, but three columns calling for clemency for filmmaker and confessed child rapist Roman Polanski:

• Anne Applebaum: The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski (9/27/09)
• Richard Cohen: Let Polanski Go—but First Let Me at Him (9/28/09)
• Richard Cohen: Thank You, Switzerland, for Freeing Polanski (7/13/10)

Needless to say, both Applebaum and Cohen have been silent on the issue of Chelsea Manning, whose crime, unlike Polanski’s, never actually harmed anyone. The New York Times also made room to publish a pro-Polanski op-ed in 2009, “Why Arrest Roman Polanski Now?” (10/3/09). (Times alum Judith Miller, whose relaying of false intelligence reports helped paved the way for the blood-soaked invasion of Iraq, had the chutzpah to demand on Twitter—1/17/17—“How many people died because of Manning’s leak?”)

After Obama’s decision on Manning, the coverage was even worse. In addition to a predictable denunciation from the New York Post (1/17/17), the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin (1/18/17) piled on Obama, insisting his “grave misstep” wasn’t “popular” with Democrats (because popularity, apparently, is now a moral rubric one should strive for). The Wall Street Journal  editorial board (1/18/17) published what was, even by its own standards, an incredibly vulgar take, referring to Manning as “a gender celebrity” and Obama’s move as “politically correct clemency.” The anonymous editorial would courageously misgender Manning three times.

Also notably absent from mainstream editorial advocacy leading up to Obama’s announcement were Puerto Rican activist Oscar López Rivera and Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who have been in federal prison for 35 and 40 years, respectively. The Chicago Tribune had one of the few newspaper editorials addressing the latter’s case—”Clemency for Leonard Peltier? Never” (1/13/17)—although Time (8/31/16) did publish an opinion piece from Peltier’s daughter seeking freedom for her father.  López Rivera received clemency from the president on Tuesday, while Peltier still holds out hope for the same.

It’s a strange day when the president of the United States is actively to the left of all major media outlets on an issue. Now that Obama has given the Manning commutation his seal of approval, some in the press will likely follow in praise. But when Manning needed support most from the fourth estate, the supposed protectors of transparency and justice in the US media were, per usual, nowhere to be found.

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can find him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC.