How do you ask a journalist to be the last journalist to lose credibility defending Obama?
Obama DOJ secretly grabs AP phone records — We are all Tea Partiers now.
I leave the internet for just a couple of hours, and another shoe drops, this time on the head of journalists everywhere.
Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe
The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters 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 calls.
In all, the government seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
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.
DOJ issued this statement after AP blew the whistle:
“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations. Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media. We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws.”
Seriously, journalists. When are you going to stop spinning for this administration.
We are all Tea Partiers now.
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Comments
Dana Perino made a great point today on Twitter and repeated on The Five:
@DanaPerino
Any time a fed agency did anything considered negative press wrote, “Bush admin does X”. For Dem admins, it’s “IRS/DOJ/State/CIA is accused..”
Case in point, the NYT headline is “U.S. Obtained Two Months of A.P. Phone Records”. No mention of Obama.
This is Schadenfreude-licious!
We will find out if they are “journalists” or just stenographers for the democrats very soon. Even using the j-word loosely, it will be interesting to see how far they can be pushed, and if any of them wake up and realize they’ve been played like everyone else. For some reason the phrase “useful idiot” keeps popping into my head.
Every tyrant eventually becomes very suspicious of their most loyal supporters…
Bronco Bama is starting to remind me of Saddam Hussein.
This happened over a year ago. It’s old news, means nothing now. Oh look! A butterfly!
I find the fact they bugged a phone inside the U.S. House of Representatives very, very disturbing.
Yes! I find it disturbing that they’re only reporting on this one event. What about all the others?
Let’s make a list of the agencies and individuals associated with the POS and his administration caught with spying on private citizens and/or lying over the past few days.
1 – Nanny Bloomberg forced to apologize when his publication is accused of spying on its 300,000 clients
2 – IRS accused of investigating Tea Party groups
3 – Sibelius accused of strongarming medical and pharmaceutical execs to fund ACA programs
4 – DOS accused of intimidating whistleblowers
Too bad we lost Dr Joyce Brothers today – Jay Carney is going to need a house call to get through the next presser.
Considering Bloomberg’s support of helping Obama bash Wall Street Fat Cats – that bit of the story might not be getting enough attention?????
Holy cow.
Was that analogy to ” We are all Jews now ”
What was the issue they were supposedly working on, the first amendment?
Someone quick… tell Obama to quit digging, Daryl Issa can only handle so much at once!
America has recently passed the 40th Anniversary of Watergate, so it’s fitting to note the eerie Nixon-Obama Parallels:
Obama Administration Replaces Top Generals Following Benghazi Disaster…Sounds like OBOZO has repeated Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre. The similarities between the two don’t stop there….
NIXON: Invoked Executive Privilege to cover up his involvement in a scheme to subvert an election
OBOZO: Invoked Executive Privilege to cover up his involvement in a scheme to subvert the Second Amendment to the US Constitution which resulted in the deaths of two US border Patrol agents and thousands of mexican citizens.
NIXON: Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson and Mitchell
OBOZO: Jarrett, Emanuel, Axelrod, van Jones, Ayers, Dorn, Wright, Holder, Rezko, Jennings….
NIXON: Appointed a political hack Attorney General who politicized ALL DOJ actions and became the SECOND WORST AG IN AMERICAN HISTORY
OBOZO: Appointed a racist political hack Attorney General who racially focused and politicized ALL DOJ actions and became the WORST AG IN AMERICAN HISTORY
NIXON: A lawyer who disrespected the law
OBOZO: A lawyer who disrespects the law, the US Constitution, American values, Catholics, free enterprise, Jews, job creators, American Exceptionalism, Israel, American citizens….
NIXON: Kissed butt of America’s enemy, the Chinese Communists
OBOZO: Kisses butt of each and every enemy of America
NIXON: Created an ENEMIES LIST of people who didn’t support him and used the LIST to intimidate, harass and slur innocent people
OBOZO: Created an ENEMIES LIST of people who do not support him and uses the LIST to intimidate, harass and slur innocent people and have various agencies in the OBOZO regime go after these individual with the intent of destroying their business and/or livelihood.
NIXON: Used the IRS to harass and intimidate his “emenies”
OBOZO: ditto – but added his DOJ to do the same.
NIXON: Engaged in a massive cover-up of his crimes in Watergate
OBOZO: Engaged in a massive cover-up of his negligence and crimes in Benghazi and in the Fast and Furious gun-running operation – BOTH of which lead to DEATHS of American citizens.
NIXON: A chronic LIAR
OBOZO: A chronic, habitual, shameless, pathological, congenital, serial LIAR – to the billionth power
NIXON: Resigned is disgrace; pardoned by his dumb-@$$, incompetent, bumbling former VP
OBOZO: Hopefully resigns in disgrace or is thrown out of office in Nov. and takes his dumb-@$$, incompetent, bumbling VP with him.
Good list.
I seriously doubt Obama would ever resign. He’d need to have some shred of integrity to do so. No chance.
Here’s Obama’s response when confronted with his own record on the despicable bag of tricks he employed to get his opponents removed from the ballot in his State Senate run and illegally exposing his opponents sealed divorce records in his US Senate run, “If you can win, you win.” That’s a direct quote.
The man isn’t just shameless, he is unscrupulous. Literally, he has no scruples (noun, “a moral or ethical consideration or standard that acts as a restraining force or inhibits certain actions.”)
The only way he leaves before his term is up is if House Republicans, collectively, grow a spine and Impeach (highly unlikely) AND we win the Senate in 2014 (possible) AND Senate R’s collectively grow a spine and convict (even more unlikely).
Assuming all of that comes to pass: President Biden.
Yeah, sorry, should have warned you that last bit was coming. I hope none of you puked or anything.
And what else don’t we know about. This has got to be the most corrupt administration that ever has been in office, and brazenly so, because unlike all others, this time the bulk of the mainstream press has been complicit. I hope this is a wake-up call. Albeit on the late side.
I’m waiting for the allegations that all of this stuff is nothing much and, like the second term of the Clinton administration, a lot of noise attributable to the powerful, relentless right-wing conspiracy to destroy the legacy of this wonderful administration.
“Seriously, journalists. When are you going to stop spinning for this administration.”
Never.
Sorry to disappoint anyone, but he’s their god. You don’t lose faith in your god when a few inexplicable things happen that you’d normally consider ‘bad’, do you? No.
Oh yeah, the “historians” have already started on their hagiographies. Our children and our children’s children will be worshipping at the altar of Obama in our taxpayer funded schools and universities for generations to come.
Nothing to see here.
It was just some spontaneous wire tapping that erupted after a disturbing video aired at the DOJ
Is that J. Edgar Holder I see?
They’re going to go back just as a battered spouse would after a particularly rough beating. When the bruises start to fade the need to protect the beloved will emerge. They can’t help themselves, they’re in love.
Exactly. And they will never set the bed on fire
holder and clinton style.
hillary is the puppet master
re: ““We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws….blah, blah, blah.”
I feel like I’ve been molested while I slept by some nasty demonic succubus.
You’d have to pay for that in Vegas…
Um, just out of curiosity, Mr. Yotham, would you, uh, happen to have the phone number of one of those nasty demonic succubi? Purely for research reasons, of course.
I have NEVER done any such thing…
and do not plan on going back, either.
As much as the media has made me despise them over the past decade or so, this is a statement I never thought I’d say:
“I stand with the Associated Press”
I have to wonder why all these really, really bad stories are breaking at the same time. It’s either one heck of a coincidence, or we are being distracted from a issue that is much worse. Given the timing, I’m guessing that Benghazi is the issue that they want us to skip over, but the truth there must be worse than anyone has guessed at if they are willing to give up these stories to distract us from it.
I have that same feeling. I think they are allowing themselves to get beat up over the talking points, just to ensure that nobody starts focusing on what was actually going on at that “diplomatic outpost” and how it was tied to the nearby CIA station.
bingo!
Most reporters would probably be thrilled Obama’s administration took the time and paid enough attention to wire tap them. I’ll bet they’re all secretly hoping they’re next
It’s getting even worse. This just in…. Left wing org ProPublica has posted an article on their website reporting that the IRS unit tasked with targeting Tea Party and conservative groups disclosed to ProPublica confidential documents from the IRS applications of those TP groups – before their apps were settled, which is a bog-time no-no. Linky:
http://www.propublica.org/article/irs-office-that-targeted-tea-party-also-disclosed-confidential-docs
When it rains it pours, eh Side Show Obob?
As I mentioned elsewhere, this news immediately reminded me of this quote:
“To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”
Ronald Reagan
Never more true than with this administration.
I believe Gary Pruitt (former CEO of McClatchy News) and current CEO of AP was a first amendment attorney when he was hired by McClatchy.
It will be interesting to see if he can find his honor, roots and guts or if he is going to sell out.
I don’t understand the big deal.
These are journalists we’re talking about… they work for Obama. Isn’t this about the same as if my employer goes through my work emails?
Yes, but they didn’t go through the union rep like they’re supposed to.
My take: DOJ got wiretaps of AP reporters so if any whistleblowers tried to talk to a reporter, DOJ would have an opportunity to “change” the whistleblower’s mind.
Look for these corrupt bozo ‘news’ types to go right back to their normal selves after this bout of temporary sanity.
To answer your question in your headline:
You ask him to be your Press Secretary.
Yeah, Jay Carney, former journ0list, I’m talkin’ ’bout YOU!
This IRS scandal is, I believe, what that “off the record” press briefing was all about……the promise of “red meat” that would be a “hot” story. But I think it blew up in their collective faces. Because they just didn’t see it as that “bad” compared to Benghazi. None of this can be ALLOWED to be squashed or sent down the memory hole. Especially Benghazi, where 4 Americans were left to die horrific deaths at the hands of those barbarians.
I dream of a summer “Wartergate-esque” trial in 2014…..and a whimpering, scowling 0 flipping the “bird” from his perch atop the Marine One steps…….. 🙂 I can dream, can’t I?
When I first saw this, I chuckled as I imagined some reporters getting upset whining “butttt weee’re on Yoooourr siiiiide.”
Hopefully a few will pull their head out of their backside and recognize the WH for what it is…. as for the other who won’t (Chris Matthews), they’ll just push their head in a little deeper hoping it will all go away.
When Hell’s a hockey rink. Next question.
First they came for the Tea Partiers . . . .
“How do you ask a journalist to be the last journalist to lose credibility defending Obama?”
Give him/her an obamaphone!