Obama Spied on the Press and They Didn't Say a Peep

[Weatherman2020]

Suddenly when a Republican President openly confronts them in front of the American people in open dialog they scream it is the end of democracy.

 

[Zorro!]

Suddenly when a Republican President openly confronts them in front of the American people in open dialog they scream it is the end of democracy.

They do seem a bit selective.

Obama Admin Surveillance Of Reporters “Broader Than Previously Known”

A new report obtained by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Freedom of the Press Foundation (where the authors work) under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the DOJ’s actions against the AP were broader than previously known, and that the DOJ considered subpoenaing the phone records of other news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. Moreover, they reveal how narrowly the DOJ interprets the Media Guidelines, the agency’s internal rules for obtaining reporters’ data. …

The report, which was submitted to then–Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013, reveals that the leak probe was broader than previously understood. It reveals, for example, that, while the Justice Department obtained telephone toll records for 21 telephone numbers, the agency in fact issued “30 subpoenas to obtain telephone toll records for 30 unique telephone numbers.” The report reveals that those 30 subpoenas were intended to target seven reporters and editors, and covered a period of six weeks spanning April 1, 2012 to May 10, 2012.

The report also shows that, at least at one stage of their investigation, Justice Department attorneys considered subpoenaing the records of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. What’s more, the report strongly suggests that the attorneys went so far as to obtain “telephone numbers and other contact information” for reporters and editors at those organizations who had worked on articles about the Yemen bomb plot. The report records, however, that the attorneys ultimately decided against issuing additional subpoenas.

The report comes from the Office of Professional Responsibility, and consists of fifty-two pages that recount the DoJ’s leak probe, a four-page appendix, and a one-page cover letter that stretches into two pages with signatures. Both the report and the cover letter note that OPR “prepared its report relying on only unclassified documents or unclassified portions of classified documents,” but even a cursory scan shows significant redactions throughout. About half of the cover letter itself is redacted, and even a quarter of the Subject line is blacked out.

You have to see this juxtaposition to grasp the absurdity. On page three, the authors redact even the purpose of the investigation, then note that they didn’t use any classified information:

CJR: Obama admin surveillance of reporters "broader than previously known"

 

[easyt65]

Snowflakes tend to ignore / deny how Clapper and Brennan both were caught committing Perjury and had to admit they had engaged in illegal spying.
.

 

[Zorro!]

Snowflakes tend to ignore / deny how Clapper and Brennan both were caught committing Perjury and had to admit they had engaged in illegal spying.
.

And Republicans have to admit that they let the Statute of Limitations expire on Crapper lying to a GOP Congress even though the GOP was supposed to be heading the DOJ.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Suddenly when a Republican President openly confronts them in front of the American people in open dialog they scream it is the end of democracy.

They do seem a bit selective.

Obama Admin Surveillance Of Reporters “Broader Than Previously Known”

A new report obtained by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Freedom of the Press Foundation (where the authors work) under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the DOJ’s actions against the AP were broader than previously known, and that the DOJ considered subpoenaing the phone records of other news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. Moreover, they reveal how narrowly the DOJ interprets the Media Guidelines, the agency’s internal rules for obtaining reporters’ data. …

The report, which was submitted to then–Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013, reveals that the leak probe was broader than previously understood. It reveals, for example, that, while the Justice Department obtained telephone toll records for 21 telephone numbers, the agency in fact issued “30 subpoenas to obtain telephone toll records for 30 unique telephone numbers.” The report reveals that those 30 subpoenas were intended to target seven reporters and editors, and covered a period of six weeks spanning April 1, 2012 to May 10, 2012.

The report also shows that, at least at one stage of their investigation, Justice Department attorneys considered subpoenaing the records of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. What’s more, the report strongly suggests that the attorneys went so far as to obtain “telephone numbers and other contact information” for reporters and editors at those organizations who had worked on articles about the Yemen bomb plot. The report records, however, that the attorneys ultimately decided against issuing additional subpoenas.

The report comes from the Office of Professional Responsibility, and consists of fifty-two pages that recount the DoJ’s leak probe, a four-page appendix, and a one-page cover letter that stretches into two pages with signatures. Both the report and the cover letter note that OPR “prepared its report relying on only unclassified documents or unclassified portions of classified documents,” but even a cursory scan shows significant redactions throughout. About half of the cover letter itself is redacted, and even a quarter of the Subject line is blacked out.

You have to see this juxtaposition to grasp the absurdity. On page three, the authors redact even the purpose of the investigation, then note that they didn’t use any classified information:

CJR: Obama admin surveillance of reporters "broader than previously known"

Spying on the Press was acceptable to Liberals? The same people that lost their shit over the Patriot Act seeking authorization to tap phone calls from known or suspected international terrorists?

 

[Zorro!]

Suddenly when a Republican President openly confronts them in front of the American people in open dialog they scream it is the end of democracy.

OBAMA’S SPYING ON THE PRESS WAS FAR MORE EXTENSIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.

The Columbia Journalism Review reports on a newly released government document showing that the Obama Justice Department engaged in a far more sweeping effort to spy on the Associated Press than previously believed.

“In 2013, the Justice Department launched a brazen attack on press freedom,” the CJR notes, “issuing sweeping subpoenas for the phone records of The Associated Press and several of its reporters and editors as part of a leak investigation. At the time, the subpoenas were widely seen as a massive intrusion into news-gathering operations. Last month, we learned that they told only part of the story.”​

The spying came in the wake of the AP’s reporting on a thwarted Yemen-based bomb plot, which contained classified information about the CIA operation. Months later, the AP learned that the DOJ had vacuumed up two-months of phone records on 21 different lines trying to find the leaker.​

Unprecedented Intrusion

Upon learning this, the AP blasted the Obama Justice Department. AP’s President and CEO Gary Pruitt said the records collected could “reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the news-gathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s news-gathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”​

Turns out, Pruitt should have been even more outraged. The new report, obtained by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, finds that the DOJ actually collected records on 30 phones.​

The report “strongly suggests that the attorneys went so far as to obtain ‘telephone numbers and other contact information’ for reporters and editors at those organizations who had worked on articles about the Yemen bomb plot.”​

“Disturbingly, the report does not come close to explaining why the subpoenas targeted the trunk lines of major AP offices — lines which could potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the AP’s news-gathering activities.”​

Just One of Obama’s Media Attacks

Bad as this was, it was just one of several examples of the Obama administration’s efforts to bully and silence the few reporters who dared challenge his spin on events.​

The administration also spent seven years trying to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his sources.​

Risen, writing in The New York Times in 2016, noted bitterly how “Over the past eight years, the administration has prosecuted nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists.”​

When not harassing reporters, Obama officials refused to cooperate with them, racking up the worse record for fulfilling FOIA of any previous administration. Obama even routinely banned news photographers from official events so he could keep an iron grip on his image. Michelle Obama banned the press from her taxpayer-paid China visit.​

On Obama’s watch, the U.S. ranking for press freedom dropped to 46th place.​

Yet, despite the occasional grumbling by an editor or a reporter here or there, most of these attacks went unnoticed. Whenever Obama spoke to the press, he pretended to be their champions. And the press, in turn, acted like teenagers in love rather than professionals threatened by a paranoid control freak.​

In fact, when reporters tried to complain about Obama’s treatment, the reporters themselves often got attacked.​

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.​

 

[Tehon]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

 

[Zorro!]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

 

[Tehon]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Spying on reporters, child trafficking...all in a days work at the dNC

 

[Zorro!]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Do you think he will be acquitted?

 

[Thinker101]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Yea, missed the part saying Trump was threatening.

 

[Tehon]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Do you think he will be acquitted?

I have no idea how this will play out.

All I know is that those indictments are a real threat to freedom of the press.

 

[depotoo]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Reading the charging documents, I suspect Chelsea Manning finally gave grand jury testimony.

 

[Zorro!]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Do you think he will be acquitted?

I have no idea how this will play out.

All I know is that those indictments are a real threat to freedom of the press.

"The Press" has no more rights under the First Amendment than you or me. Do you think you or I have immunity from espionage charges?

 

[Butch_Coolidge]

So why has the press saved all its ire for Trump, who has — despite his words — been far friendlier to the press in his deeds than Obama? One can only speculate.

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

Was the journalist Steven Colbert [emoji2955]? That sounds about right. I hope he gets Adobese as his cell mate. He has something to shut his big mouth up with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tehon]

Trump is currently threatening a journalist with 175 years in prison. That is hardly a friendly gesture.

I wasn't able to locate anything on that.

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act on 17 New Counts

Do you think he will be acquitted?

I have no idea how this will play out.

All I know is that those indictments are a real threat to freedom of the press.

"The Press" has no more rights under the First Amendment than you or me. Do you think you or I have immunity from espionage charges?

The dissemination of information is not espionage.