How’d you like that, AP?
The Associated Press complains that the Obama Justice Department seized the phone records of several of their reporters in an investigation of the leaked information from one of their anti-terror operations last year;
In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.
The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.
Some of us aren’t all that surprised – if the Obama Administration doesn’t care about the Second Amendment, why should they care about the First Amendment that is supposed to protect the “freedom of the press”? Apparently, the Bill of Rights is considered a “Bill of Suggestions” by this administration. Now, when the IRS targeted conservative organizations no one said much of anything in the press, but it led news stories when President Nixon only asked questions about using the IRS against his enemies. The media climbed on board when this administration wanted to take away the right of legal gun owners. But now they’re interfering with news organizations’ ability to gather news. Who is going to want to give the AP tips in this legal environment? How does that quote from Pastor Martin Niemöller go? Something about “…Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Thanks to ROS for the link.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
As the White House scandals accumulate I’ll repeat a comment I made recently regarding Mike Huckabee – “Obama will not survive Benghazi……….” add the IRS and now AP.
What a bunch of amateurs.
…but but the AP is supposed to be their friends! I wonder if the mostly wonderful articles will still be there.
JPJ…of course they will be. Just look at the headline which says, “Government accessed records…” Now had this been 2005, the headline would have read, “Bush Administration accessed records…”
@1 LIRight, I hope Huckabee is correct and Benghazi becomes Obama’s Watergate!
The linked article is intriguing. The B. Hussein Obama administration had said that there were no significant terror plots being investigated. The AP found out otherwise and notified the administration which, for national security reasons, asked AP to sit on the story. It did. When the plot was foiled and the threat ended, AP was asked to continue to sit on the story until the administration could formulate its official announcement. AP said, in effect, fahgetaboutit. And that’s when the stuff hit the fan.
“The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls.”
When you piss off your own propaganda ministry, you really have stepped in it.
F&F, IRS, Benghazi, AP, all the resistance to FOIA request… you have to wonder when the real journalist will wake up and realize how hard thy have been played. How their willingness to “go along to get along” has been completely one sided by the Emperor and his staff, and that they the Press are the ones wearing no clothes.
OK, how many more government depts. are left that do not
have some kind of scandal. Were running out!!!
Why don’t these reporters get burn phones? Do they learn nothing from the movies, for pete’s sake? //sarc off
Next!
I’m finding it very hard to be charitable regarding the “Associated with terrorists Press”. That is is an outrage against the 1st amendment is beyond question, but one does have to ask if the Justice Department was upset with AP over this, why in hell wasn’t DoJ doing the same to the NYT over it’s actual release of confidential information?
Oh wait….. that was under W. Never mind.
Pray the Empire doesn’t alter the bargain further…
Well the same folks that don’t like that icky old 2nd Amendment are now having their favorite Amendment violated. Wonder how long before the shit hits the fan?
#11: depends on when Obama reminds them who credentials their WH reporter.
The worm turns and Karma is filing her teeth!
Yes, when you turn on the people who suck up to you, you create instant enemies.
Frankly, I expect to see more stories like this to appear in the next few months. Obama has dimsissed the questions about the Benghazi events as ‘a sidewhow’.
Is he really so stupid that he thinks he can ignore the rug being yanked? Yes. I do believe that he actually is that stupid.
A quick glance at the headlines indicates that only Fox News and CBS are presently even carrying the story.
“Move along, nothing to see here…”
What’s the big deal? Since (most of) the media works for the Obama Administration, it only makes sense that the government should have their records.
jerry920: it was featured prominently on CNN (broadcast version) when I was on the way out of my office building complex today. And it’s the lead story on CNN’s website right now.
With apologies to Greener and/or Twain (the original line’s been attributed to both): never argue with those who buy (digital) ink by the barrel.
I expect the AP’s collective response to be something along the lines of “thank you sir, may I have another”.
Now had this been 2005, the headline would have read, “Bush Administration accessed records…”
I’m thinking: “Bush accessed records, misappropriated funds, took the last cup of coffee without making more, and impregnated the dog, though we’re not sure about that funds part.”
90% of our news these days comes in the form of leaked documents and classified reports from the Executive and Legislative branches that go by without even a sniff. Now all the sudden they’re blasting their way through the 1st Amendment over this particular one?
@jerry920 – Sorry, you’re wrong: NBC is carrying the story.
Here’s the link: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653378/s/2bdf3f03/l/0Lopenchannel0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C130C182343170Eap0Ecalls0Egovernments0Erecord0Eseizure0Ea0Emassive0Eand0Eunprecedented0Eintrusion0Dlite/story01.htm
Here’s the line to Reuters news service:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/14/us-usa-justice-ap-idUSBRE94C0ZW20130514?feedType=RSS
Link to CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57584275/justice-department-obtains-2-months-of-ap-phone-records-in-probe/
Link to Huffpo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/ap-phone-records-doj-leaks_n_3268932.html?1368485202
Link to Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-justice-apbre94c0zw-20130513,0,2384590.story
Oooo! Times of India link. I guess it’s gone global now:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Associated-Press-says-US-govt-seized-journalists-phone-records/articleshow/20039478.cms
You should do a better job of research before you make a statement like that.
Will the MSM pick this up? Hmmmm. Any bets?
I think the only agency that isn’t under fire is the Dept of Agriculture. If I missed something, let me know.
Three Questions;
1. Does the administration have an enemies list?
2. Do they give Certificates?
3. Can I get one?
@22
If you ever find a website to get one of those, clue me in. I want one.
Don’t ever forget that they may be willing to throw the figurehead under the bus but their ideology remains unchanged We are still the enemy and they will continue to advance their agenda as soon as they pick a new figurehead.
Any guesses who that might be? You have three, and the first two do not count. Always said that a battle between the Chicago thugs and the Clintonistas would be great fun to watch.
@21
I think the only agency that isn’t under fire is the Dept of Agriculture
Well, there’s the Pigford scandal.
@25
And Monsanto. The fact they’re allowed to operate the way they do is criminal.
All of these scandals just point out that the current admin is just Chicago Machine politics on a national level.
Chicago politics and vengeful abuse of gov’t power– what happens when you keep voting for liberals.
@23. In answer to your questions:
1. Yes, of course
2. Certainly
3. Yes, here you go:
Upon the determination and nomination of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, Herman J. Messkit, in accordance with the unpublished and unconstitutional provisions appertaining thereto, is hereby declared and certified to be an enemy of Obamerica.
(Congratulations!)
@22: Can’t include the Dept. of Agriculture as being untainted; they have that whole food stamp promotion in Mexico and the Monsanto kerfluffle going on.
@30 Thanks I’ll be sure to write up that hometown news release.
The media made this president. He better remember that they can also break him.
PN, I think that they already have abandoned him. Not the agenda, just him personally. They wanted him to be the face of the agenda but since he has outlived his usefulness, time for a new face.
@34: yep.
@34 and 35: Abandoning and attacking are two different things. If the press decides to push, they can create a shit-storm Obama won’t be able to duck. All I’m saying is, he better not forget who is actually buttering his bread.
PN’s right.
It was the media that tore down Nixon.
@36: Oh, I agree they could bring a shitstorm, if they were so inclined, however, because he has a D behind his name, it won’t happen. Nixon was hated by the press and he hated them, so it was very easy for them to attack him about the WG coverup. I remember it being the main topic for months/years. Books were written, movies made, etc., that dealt with the coverup, not the actual break in, all because he had an R behind his name.
This corrupt bastard is still going to get some cover from the msm and only a few will even attack him.
Abandonment, or the process of abandonment, is where we are right now. If he mans up, does some of the right things (like resign prior to impeachment) that is all the media will do. If he refuses to do what is right (translated to mean “what is best for the survival of the leftist agenda”) then the attacks will begin. We are not quite to the attack phase yet.
Media darlings can quite easily become media targets. It wouldn’t be the first time in the history of this country, and it probably won’t be the last.
The press hated Andrew Jackson and labeled him ‘jackass’, which he liked and took the donkey as his symbol. Yet he was a war hero. Grant was a war hero, too, but not well-liked by the press once he got into office. I think it had less to do with politics than personality.
And our culture right now is, unfortunately, almost a culture of personality. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t look at do-nothings like the Kardashians and the Jersey Shore idiots as if they were on some elevated plane, when they aren’t. And by ‘we’, I mean people in general, not those here present.
If, as OWB points out, Bodaprez mans up and does what’s right, he’ll be lauded for it, but my money says he won’t because he’s too disconnected from it and too disdainful to think he has to do that.
His little speech about the IRS being outrageous had all the apathy of someone in a coma. FDR, Kennedy and LBJ all put energy and passion into their deliveries. Hell, even Nixon had more energy in his speeches.
This guy acts like he just doesn’t give a crap and doesn’t think he has to. And this is the first stage of abandonment, with more to come.
The stupidity here is amazing.
@41: then don’t come here. You won’t be missed.
@41 Awww, come on. You can do better than that. We haven’t had a troll to maul for awhile. Ya gotta give us something to work with!
@ 42, His mommy is typing for him, give it time.
The stupidity here is amazing.
Really, the only stupidity I see here occurs on post #41.
Oh look, another drive by troll. How quaint.
@41 must be describing itself.
Maybe it depends upon where “here” is.