TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Greg Sargent recounts a discussion he had with Mark Marzetti, a national security reporter for the New York Times, about whether the AP and Rosen cases, and the Obama administration’s earlier leak prosecutions, is chilling his sources’ willingness to talk:

“There’s no question that this has a chilling effect,” Mazzetti said. “People who have talked in the past are less willing to talk now. Everyone is worried about communication and how to communicate, and [asking if there] is there any method of communication that is not being monitored. It’s got people on both sides — the reporter and source side — pretty concerned.”

Mazzetti, who’s been reporting on national security since 2001, suggested that what we’re seeing under the Obama administration, which has investigated an unprecedented number leak cases, is something new. He noted that a kind of unwritten consensus existed under the Bush administration that even if officials were angry about leaks, probes into them never really ended up leading anywhere.

I suppose this is the “balance” President Obama seeks.