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[Commentary] Did the White House misrepresent the Benghazi, Libya, attacks to cover up its own ineptitude? Did the Internal Revenue Service purposefully target conservative groups for scrutiny? Americans rely on journalists to cast light on these thorny issues. But if reporters can’t do their jobs, everyone else will most likely remain in the dark about serious government mistakes. That’s why all Americans should be deeply alarmed about the Obama administration’s recent investigations of news organizations, which have drawn far less ink than the Benghazi or IRS scandals. And that’s exactly backward. The most worrisome threat right now is to the people who actually produce the ink: US journalists.

[Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University]

A federal judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI warrantless demands for customer data.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston on May 28 rejected Google's argument that the so-called National Security Letters were unconstitutional and unnecessary. Google could appeal the decision. The company declined to comment. The order omits any mention of Google and the proceedings have been closed to the public. The order references a separate case in New York federal court that the "petitioner" is involved in another lawsuit with the government over similar disclosures.

About two weeks into San Jose State's online education experiment at an Oakland charter school, it became clear that something was wrong. Some of the students in the college's for-credit math courses weren't even logging on. It turned out some of the low-income teens didn't have computers and high-speed Internet connections at home that the online course required. Many needed personal attention to make it through.

The final results aren't in yet, but the experiment exposed some challenges to the promise of a low-cost online education. And it showed there is still a divide between technology-driven educators and the low-income, first-generation college hopefuls they are trying to reach. To make it work, the institute had to issue laptops to students, set aside class time for them to focus on the online course, and assign teachers to make sure they stayed on task.

A Q&A with Barry Diller.

Over the course of his long career, he has jumped from movies to television, to cable and finally to the Web. Now he is backing a company, Aereo Inc., that wants to sell access to broadcast television on the Web—though a digital antenna—for a fraction of what cable charges. Broadcast networks, claiming copyright infringement, oppose what Aereo is doing. Some cable executives, including CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, don't exactly approve, either. All Things Digital's Walt Mossberg sat down with both men to talk about Aereo, CNN and the future of television and the Web. Here are edited excerpts of their discussion.