From the NYT: With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.
The latest reported episode involves James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News. In 2009, Mr. Rosen reported on FoxNews.com that North Korea planned to launch a missile in response to the condemnation of its nuclear tests by the United Nations Security Council. The Justice Department investigated the source of the article and later indicted Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department security adviser, on charges of leaking classified information. Mr. Kim pleaded not guilty.
Normally, the inquiry would have ended with Mr. Kim — leak investigations usually focus on the source, not the reporter. But, in this case, federal prosecutors also asked a federal judge for permission to examine Mr. Rosen’s personal e-mails, arguing that “there is probable cause to believe” Mr. Rosen is “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leak....
The Rosen case follows other signs that the administration has gone overboard in its zeal to find and muzzle insiders. The Associated Press revealed last week that the government had secretly seized two months’ worth of records for telephones used by the agency’s staff, partly to determine the source of a leak about a report involving a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. At least two other major leak investigations are continuing. Six current and former administration officials have been indicted under the old Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press and public. In 2010, a federal judge in Maryland sentenced a leaker to 20 months in jail while admitting that he was “in the dark as to the kind of documents” involved in the leak or what impact they had on national security.
Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator,” on top of other zealous and secretive investigations, shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/another-chilling-leak-investigation.html?_r=0
Apparently, the Obama administration thinks this is the first time a reporter has tried to scoop the government and their competitors on a news stories. Hell, even the NYT leaked secret information during the Bush administration.
But the Bush administration had more class and recognized that reporters have a job to do and didn't sic the DOJ on the NYT. Bush was pissed to be sure, but he bit his lip, vented in public and that was it.
Obama has decided to make war with reporters who cross them apparently.
It's time for Eric Holder to resign or be impeached. Why he still has a job is beyond me, except, I guess he is under qualified to sell water bottlers on the Las Vegas Strip. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/squeeze-strip-peddlers-tightens
Hear that? That's the sound of someone's ox getting gored!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just conservative/political opponents of Obama that are getting the treatment. Once the AP and now The Times got a taste of what this administration is capeable of, suddenly, they're upset and SHOCKED that something like this would happen! They've been so busy feeding the alligator, it never dawned on them that they'd be eaten last.