On Monday I noted a story that there was some suggestion that the federal government was monitoring the phone calls of some ABC News reporters.
While the exact details of the situation remain unclear, and likely are about leak investigations, we find that the basics have some truth to them. Via CBS: CBSNews.com: Blog
FBI spokesman Bill Carter told the Sun that the ABC News report was “misleading,” but he did not dispute the claim that the FBI had obtained journalists’ phone records. “In any case where the records of a private person are sought, they may only be obtained through established legal process,” he said.
As such, the story may not be fully accurate, it isn’t untrue.
I obviously cannot fully comment on the situation, as many facts remain unknown. However, I must state that I find the notion that the FBI are monitoring whom the press are speaking with to be problematic at a minimum likely quite troubling. As the post linked at the top of this one, while catching leakers who have broken oaths is a wholly understandable and necessary action on the part of the government, doing so by targeting the press has the potential to create far more harm than good.
May 17th, 2024 at 10:20 am
When I read the words “…they may only be obtained through established legal process”, I am reminded of numerous similar statements by Ashcroft, Gonazalez, Bush, et al on similar isses – and those statements always turned out to be no more than attempts to hide wrong-doing behind deliberately misleading phrasing. It pains me to see how jaded I’ve become, because it seems to me that there was a time when I would not have had that reaction.
May 17th, 2024 at 10:21 am
As the Wall Street journal predicted long ago, what was sauce for the goose (the Administration) has become sauce for the gander (the press).
Hoist by their own petards.
Probably good for journalistic standards, certainly good for the CIA, bad for government in general unless it leads to people actually complaining to Congress and voersight agencies under our whistleblower statutes.