Let the First Amendment/Freedom of Press Ring? How can this happen? A big slap in the most abject way coming soon, folks~Blame it on the "Non-Traditional News Agencies"

Nice little scam. By only having 20-30 "exclusive" slots, the DOL can limit reporters to those it deems friendly to the administration. Even if it allows additional reporters, they won't have access to any computers, so their stories will come out later, conflicting with the earlier "friendly" reports and undermining their credibility. This argument about "leaks" is ridiculous. I can appreciate that the DOL does not want their figures to be published by different news agencies in stages, as this presents certain readers with opportunities to perform insider trading. But the point is that once the DOL makes its figures available to the press, they all get it at the same time, and have an equal opportunity to publish quickly, as long as the playing field is fair (i.e., each reporter can use his or her computer and phone). If anything, the new rules INCREASE the likelihood of insider trading, because only a small, handpicked collection of reporters are able to use the government supplied computers. This "elite group" will get to publish first, and others will have to publish later (either via manual data collection and transmission, or syndicating content from the first group). My opinion is that the "leak" issue is a diversion to hide the DOL's real intent - make sure "government friendly" reporters can report first, so that reports that come out later by others (conservative reporters) lack credibility (due to the fact that their op-ed portions differ from the first group).