… but when it is by their own pimp one wonders how long the outrage will last.
The U.S. Justice Department has seized without notice comprehensive phone records for reporters and editors at the Associated Press, prompting the news agency to protest Monday directly to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
“I am writing to object in the strongest possible terms to a massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the newsgathering activities of The Associated Press,” wrote AP CEO Gary Pruitt, in a letter to Holder that was posted on AP’s website. […]
The AP was told of the Justice Department’s seizure of phone records on May 10 in a letter to its lawyers from the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen in Washington, D.C. According to Pruitt’s letter, the records involve more than 20 phone lines, including AP’s general phone number in New York City and numbers in bureaus in New York City; Washington, D.C. (including the House of Representatives); and Hartford, Conn. More than 100 journalists work in the offices, according to the AP.
“DOJ has interpreted its powers broadly enough to grab phone records of media organizations without giving notices,” says David Cross, lawyer at Crowell & Moring, who has specialized in electronic discovery law. “It certainly creates questions about the First Amendment. For 20 phone lines, that’s a whole lot of information DOJ is sitting on beyond the target of the investigation.”
The home-phone and cellphone records of several AP journalists were also seized, Pruitt wrote.
They’ll grab your guns, but don’t you dare touch their press inviolability.
John Yoo:
Well, shit, why shouldn’t they? The press works for them.
surely they’ll come to some quiet accommodation
and not trouble us with the details
One way or another, this is going to be a clarifying moment, as far as the media is concerned.
And if we’re very good and eat all our vegetables, brush out teeth and say our prayers, AND get very very lucky, it may even be clarifying as far as the modern GOP is concerned.
Will this (finally) be the press’ wake up call on Obama’s true nature? It’s amusing when he’s using the IRS to harass and leak confidential tax inform about pesky conservatives and known ‘enemies’ like the Koch brothers. But he’s been spying on these reporters’ home phones
Somehow, I don’t see the press doing much. They’ll whine about this, but they are prog to the bone; they will not resist.
This is the administration they campaigned for, reported for, covered up for, spun for, and voted for. And now they’re getting it, good and hard.
I have a hard time mustering up any sympathy for them. What Obama is, what progressives are, has always been clear to anybody with eyes to see.
If that’s what comes about, it would behoove Republican politicians to treat the media with the same contempt. After all, if media, such as it is, works as the propaganda arm of the DNC, why should the GOP give a damn what they have to say, or aid them in saying it?
Ernst Schreiber says May 14, 2013 at 7:21 am
After all, if media, such as it is, works as the propaganda arm of the DNC, why should the GOP give a damn what they have to say, or aid them in saying it?
I don’t know. Seriously. The fact is the GOP (and some phony conservative opinion writers) regularly prop up the media by behaving as if they are legitimate.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit more, and I don’t like this. This makes the press look like “victims” and adds to their credibility. It will very likely undermine the impact of this flood of scandals.
Sure, they may be upset that Teh Won is abusing them, but they’re really just looking for ways to prove how much they really, truly love Him, and they’ll never do anything to provoke such abuse ever again.
Obama hits the press because he loves them.
He surveilled me, and it felt like a kiss.
“No no no, I don’t wanna go to GIT-MO…”
— Any Weisenheimer
Well done, Squid.