Big Brother Has Big Eyes and Long Arms

Trey Smith

Associated Press on Monday revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) "secretly obtained two months of telephone records of [its] reporters and editors", denouncing it as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into the news gathering process. In a letter sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP's President, Gary Pruitt, detailed that the phone records cover more than 20 telephone lines used by AP journalists, including their homes, offices and cell phones. He said the phones for which the DOJ obtained records also include ones at the AP bureaus in New York City, Washington DC, Hartford, and at the House of Representatives.

Pruitt wrote that "we regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP's constitutional rights to gather and report the news." He added that while AP is "evaluating its options", he "urgently request[ed]" that the DOJ "immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records" obtained by the DOJ "and destroy all copies." AP learned of the DOJ's acquisition of these records only after the fact, and thus had no opportunity to raise legal and constitutional objections nor attempt to negotiate to narrow the scope of the records to be sought.
~ from Justice Department's Pursuit of AP's Phone Records Is Both Extreme and Dangerous by Glenn Greenwald ~

As Greenwald points out later in this article, it is believed that the DOJ is trying to find out the identity of the person or persons who leaked information about CIA activities in Yemen to the AP. You see, while candidate Obama told voters that his administration would protect whistleblowers, it turns out that this pledge was a BIG FAT LIE. His administration has gone after whistleblowers like no other.

This situation should motivate you to think about this whole deal. If the Obama administration has no qualms whatsoever in going after establishment journalists, what are the chances they have any qualms about looking into YOUR communications? The media has an instant soapbox they can climb upon to object for all the world to see and hear. What do you have?