An IT professional-turned-independent journalist in her 30s, O'Brien has been a player in a number of major protests against the Obama administration. She's a plaintiff in a lawsuit launched by journalist Chris Hedges against the Obama administration over a law mandating indefinite military detention for suspected terrorists. Starting in January 2011, she covered WikiLeaks' release of the State Department cables.
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The fruits of O'Brien's labor bear testament to the potential of independent journalism in the post-WikiLeaks era: 27 transcripts, the most complete collection of filings in the case publicly available and a docket whose numbered section alone runs to 466 entries.
The transcripts, assembled from notes she takes in real time, are something of a wonder. The judge in the case, Col. Denise Lind, had until last week refused to release her rulings on paper, instead reading them out in court. One reporter calculated that a February ruling ran to 23,000 words, which Lind read at a rate of 180 words per minute. The transcript of that is listed on O'Brien's website as "coming soon," but another of a pretrial hearing in November, which runs more than 52,000 words, is online.
Along with several other independent reporters who have oscillated between advocacy and journalism, O'Brien is a Manning supporter. But she is adamant that her meticulous transcripts are just the facts -- and even mainstream reporters seem to agree.
