Obama's Case Against A Fox News Reporter

[red states rule]

This should send chills up anyone spine as the Obama regime is clearly out of control and drunk on power






As Katie wrote earlier (http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/05/20/doj-secretly-monitored-three-fox-news-reports-n1601625), the President Obama's Department of Justice secretly monitored the e-mails, phone calls and even physical movements of Fox News reporter James Rosen, even going so far as to suggest that Rosen broke the law.


Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker posted the full 44-page search warrant (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/05/the-doj-versus-journalist-gmail.html) that details the allegations against both James Rosen former State Department employee Stephne Jin-Woo Kim. It's chilling - perhaps none more so than page 26, which details the innocuous relationship between Rosen and Kim


Particularly part (b) here, where the Justice Department somehow sees malice in a reporter "employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim's vanity and ego." In other words, any investigative reporter who plays nice with a potential source might be subject to getting their records searched by the Department of Justice.
Over at Hot Air, Allahpundit wrote (http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/20/experienced-democrats-whispering-that-it-might-be-time-for-holder-to-go/) of top Democrats getting fed up with Eric Holder's scandal-plagued Department of Justice:

[S]capegoating Holder for Obama’s anti-leak practices might help liberal O-bots resolve the cognitive dissonance between their idealized view of the Unicorn Prince as a champion of good government and the unpleasant daily reality. Blame Holder, boot him out, and then they can gaze once again at O as the fantasy president they wished he was. Press Secretary Jay Carney had nothing to say in today's White House press briefing, refusing to answer any question that he deemed even tangentially related to these new allegations of the Department of Justice that were brought to light. It's been his standard practice when dealing with scandal, but today's was a stunning display of obfuscation. The daily press briefings are becoming must-watch affairs, with even the mainstream media increasingly fed up with the Obama Administration.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/kevinglass/2013/05/20/flattery-vanity-and-ego-obamas-case-against-a-fox-news-reporter-n1601943

[Kathianne]

Even the MSM gets this:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/doj-vs-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen/


...For First Amendment advocates, the most chilling part of the court documents is the suggestion by DOJ that Rosen was “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator in the crime” because he was trying to get the information, which was classified, from his source. Seeking sensitive and secret information is something reporters do every day.
The Rosen story, of course, comes after news the Justice Department had also subpoenaed the phone records of 20 employees of The Associated Press a different leak investigation.


White House spokesman Jay Carney was peppered with question after question about this at today’s briefing, beginning with this exchange I had with him:

...



http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/justice-departments-scrutiny-of-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-in-leak-case-draws-fire/2013/05/20/c6289eba-c162-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44_story.html


Journalists, First Amendment watchdogs and government transparency advocates reacted with outrage Monday to the revelation (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-peek-into-a-justice-department-leak-probe/2013/05/19/0bc473de-be5e-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z2) that the Justice Department had investigated the newsgathering activities of a Fox News reporter as a potential crime in a probe of classified leaks.

Critics said the government’s suggestion that James Rosen, Fox News’s chief Washington correspondent, was a “co-conspirator” for soliciting classified information threatened to criminalize press freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Others also suggested that the Justice Department’s claim in pursuing an alleged leak from the State Department was little more than pretext to seize his e-mails to build their case against the suspected leaker.

...


In the affidavit, FBI agent Reginald Reyes said Rosen “asked, solicited and encouraged Mr. Kim to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information.” He added, “The reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim’s vanity and ego.”


That detail particularly irked media lawyers and transparency experts, who said the Justice Department had crossed a line by equating routine reporting practices with possible criminal activity.


“Neither flattery nor an insistent tone rises to the level of a criminal offense,” Aftergood said.

...

[Kathianne]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-scandal-stonewalled-cincinnati/story?id=19206140#.UZqWhtgSpJ2ABC seems able to read the 'writing on the wall.'



Cincinnati Ground Zero of Exploding IRS Scandal, But Answers Hard to Find...

At the IRS office on the fourth floor, a woman who answered the buzzer referred reporters to officials in Washington, though they were not returning very many calls. That staffer also said she was not allowed to speak to anyone – a line that was repeated by agency personnel during the week.

IRS headquarters in Washington denied that a no-talk rule was official policy because, after all, agency staffers still have a constitutional right to talk to whomever they want.

...

One of them, who asked not be named, told ABC News that security guards did remind employees of the official policy not to talk with the press – a warning cemented by the punch line "or risk losing our jobs."

...

On Thursday morning, after news that Miller was sacked, two ABC News journalists walked into the Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati looking for answers. The newsmen were screened at the door by security. They emptied their pockets as instructed, removed their belts, then went through the metal detectors.

...

As we traveled the public hallways of the building – watched over by security cameras – an armed uniformed police officer with the Federal Protective Service followed us. We were looking for a particular office—of someone who would not want to be seen talking to reporters--but chose to bypass it because of our official babysitter.

Asked why we were being escorted in a public building, the officer identified himself as Insp. Mike Finkelstein and said he was only trying to make sure that the newsmen were not a "nuisance." He brushed aside further questions. The cop said a supervisor would call to explain.

One of the reporters wanted to know if the act of following the journalists was an effort intended to scare off any federal employee who might have considered speaking to the press. That's sure what it looked like; and, even if that wasn't the goal, it was the effect.

...

Whether improper conduct occurred at the IRS—and who was responsible for targeting the president's enemies, as some members of Congress have argued – will be subject to much more review.

[taft2012]

Even the MSM gets this:

They're a bunch of phonies.

They had a chance to take a stand against this, but instead condoned it. They backed the Democrats when Robert Novak was dragged before a grand jury and forced to testify about his source regarding the phony Valerie Plame issue.

It wasn't a matter of professional principle to the MSM at the time, they viewed it as a partisan matter. They had to find out the hard way that their partisanship wouldn't exempt them from the whirlwind they wrought.

[aboutime]

They're a bunch of phonies.

They had a chance to take a stand against this, but instead condoned it. They backed the Democrats when Robert Novak was dragged before a grand jury and forced to testify about his source regarding the phony Valerie Plame issue.

It wasn't a matter of professional principle to the MSM at the time, they viewed it as a partisan matter. They had to find out the hard way that their partisanship wouldn't exempt them from the whirlwind they wrought.


taft. I wonder if anyone in the MSM knows, or has ever heard the expression: "What goes around, comes around?"

Seems they are finally feeling the wrath of their own Ignorance being rubbed in their faces.

[red states rule]

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[red states rule]

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