The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Christopher Frizzelle

Obama Administration Described a Reporter Just Doing His Job as Probable "Aider, Abettor, and/or Co-Conspirator" in a Crime

Christopher Frizzelle — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:37:43 -0700

Man, it's rare day that I agree with Karl Rove and Marco Rubio about anything, but they're totally right on the Justice Department's ridiculous overreaching in their pursuit of Fox News reporter James Rosen. Karl Rove says it's "chilling" and "beyond the pale" and adds that in the Bush administration, "There were leaks of classified information and in each and every instance, the focus was on the potential leak, not the reporter who received it." And Rubio says:

I am very concerned by reports the Obama Administration targeted a FOX News reporter for possible criminal prosecution for doing what appears to be normal news-gathering protected by the First Amendment. The sort of reporting by James Rosen detailed in the report is the same sort of reporting that helped Mr. Rosen aggressively pursue questions about the Administration’s handling of Benghazi. National security leaks are criminal and put American lives on the line, and federal prosecutors should, of course, vigorously investigate. But we expect that they do so within the bounds of the law, and that the investigations focus on the leakers within the government – not on media organizations that have First Amendment protections and serve vital function in our democracy. We must insist that federal agents not use legitimate investigations as an excuse to harass journalists they deem unfriendly to the President or the Administration. We shouldn’t even have to ask if our government would do such a thing, but unfortunately as the unfolding IRS scandal shows, this White House has created a culture where we do have to explicitly make these kinds of requests.

As Ryan Lizza writes on The New Yorker's website: "It is unprecedented for the government, in an official court document, to accuse a reporter of breaking the law for conducting the routine business of reporting on government secrets."

Here's the PDF of the Justice Department's application for a search warrant of Rosen's email account, with several instances of statements like this:

Can you imagine if this were a Republican administration targeting, say, an MSNBC reporter? On Twitter, Lizza described today's White House briefing as "surreal":

Today's WH briefing is surreal. Reporters can't get @presssec to garner a shred of concern about DOJ calling James Rosen a criminal.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013

Meanwhile, Lizza's Twitter bio has changed to "Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker, Contributor for CNN, aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator."

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Christopher Frizzelle

Obama Administration Described a Reporter Just Doing His Job as Probable "Aider, Abettor, and/or Co-Conspirator" in a Crime

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