Green Energy
Justice Department won’t say why it seized phone records from Journalists Covering Feds
GOVT TAPS PRESS PHONE RECORDS FOR MONTHS
20 phone lines monitored...
AP: 'Massive and unprecedented intrusion'...
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Green Energy
Justice Department won’t say why it seized phone records from Journalists Covering Feds
HARRISBURG – It’s one of those days where those of us who worry about handing too much authority to the federal government were proven right. Again.
The Associated Press this afternoon reports that the U.S. Justice Department seized records for more than 20 telephone lines assigned to AP journalists during 2012.
The AP’s top executive rightly calls it a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” of journalists’ privacy:
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, 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……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 federal government did not give the Associated Press a reason why they seized the records, because who needs that pesky “freedom of the press” thing in the First Amendment. And surely this is the first and only time the feds have spied on journalists, right?
So, while the IRS is spending its time scrutinizing the tax records of conservative nonprofits and tea party groups, the Obama Justice Department is tracking communications between journalists and their confidential sources.
Boy, Big Government sure looks warm and cuddly this week.
Boehm is a civil liberties reporter for Watchdog.org and bureau chief for PA Independent. He can be reached at [email protected]
GOVT TAPS PRESS PHONE RECORDS FOR MONTHS
20 phone lines monitored...
AP: 'Massive and unprecedented intrusion'...
- Ap Ceo Says Doj Monitored “thousands And Thousands” Of Ap Phone Calls
NEW YORK — Associated Press president and chief executive Gary Pruitt told staff at a Wednesday town hall meeting that the phone records obtained by the government included “thousands and thousands” of calls in and out of the news organization,...
- Obama Administration Investigated New York Times Reporter Too
Question of the day: WILL THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORT THAT THE NEW YORK TIMES WAS INVESTIGATED From the Atlantic: The New York Times reports the Department of Justice investigated national security leaks given to Times reporter David...
-
The Blaze: It Gets Worse: More Shocking Details About DOJ Spying on Fox News The U.S. Department of Justice is currently in damage control mode after it surfaced that the DOJ obtained Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal and work phone records,...
-
Even Liberals Call for Holder's Ouster Radio talk-show host Bill Press, former chairman of the California Democratic Party, has become at least the second heavyweight liberal commentator to call for the ouster of Attorney General Eric Holder. Writing...
- White House Propaganda Minister Jay Carney Asked About Doj Seizing Ap Phone Records: “no Comment” – Update: Releases Statement Saying Wh Had “no Knowledge” Of Doj Seizing Ap Records
Jay Carney - Gravitas Manifest From TPM: White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday had no comment when asked about an Associated Press report revealing that the Department of Justice secretly obtained two months of telephone records...