Two calls for the press "to rise to the occasion" in the face of bullying, from the nation's top journalism deans and Frank Rich.

I will say this, it is staggering to see what a press that doesn't pull punches coupled with an independent Milan prosecutor have managed to unearth in Italy -- a full fledged politicized domestic intelligence operation complete with a Roman batcave apartment of archived illegally tapped phone calls and disinformation dossiers, paid spies, and spying on journalists directed against Sismi's and Berlusconi's perceived domestic political enemies. And there too they had a do-nothing parliamentary oversight committee and timid and intimidated politicians, endless invocations of "state secrecy" and national security, and a public that seemed capable of being manipulated, terrorized, and spun into apathy and resignation. But it's all coming unraveled, finally.

Update: eRiposte has a helpful summary of the Italian case revelations so far.

Update II: A commenter at Washington Monthly suggests that, perhaps La Repubblica can open a US branch. We would already appear to have the equivalent of Renato Farina.

Posted by Laura at July 9, 2006 08:53 AM