Wry Catcher
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #41
How many more examples of Trumps authoritarianism do you need to see before some of you figure it out?
Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House
Kenneth P. Vogel and Jeremy W. Peters
Arthur Schwartz, right, a conservative consultant who is a friend and informal adviser to the president’s eldest son, and Richard Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany.
A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.
It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.
The group has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times — three outlets that have aggressively investigated Mr. Trump — in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his re-election prospects.
Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House
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Obama, whose administration prosecuted and spied on reporters, claims Trump is very bad for criticizing newsrooms
by Becket Adams
| September 07, 2018 04:46 PM
said at the time, “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent. As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.”
That language about "legitimate news organizations" and "opponents" is only different from the things Trump says by degree, not by kind.
In 2010, the Obama administration renewed the bogus Bush-era subpoena against the New York Times' James Risen in a prolonged attempt to determine whether the reporter was the recipient of leaked CIA information. In February 2011, federal investigators were revealed to have spied on Risen. Federal investigators pored over Risen's credit reports and his personal bank records. The feds even tracked his phone logs and movements.
Later, in 2012, Fox was mysteriously excluded from a White House conference call pertaining to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Fox was also excluded from an all-network CIA briefing regarding the attacks.
In 2013, the Obama Justice Department labeled then-Fox News reporter James Rosen a “criminal co-conspirator” under the Espionage Act of 1917. And all because the reporter used a State Department contractor as a source for a story. Rosen was also labeled a "flight risk."
The Justice Department seized the records of at least five phone lines connected to Fox News. The federal law enforcement agency even seized the phone records of Rosen’s parents. The FBI also got a warrant to search Rosen's emails from 2010.
In May 2013, the Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had secretly collected two months' worth of personal and work-related phone calls made by AP reporters and editors.
Federal officials secretly obtained records on incoming and outgoing calls made by specific AP journalists, as well as general news staff, the news group reported, potentially compromising many sources totally unrelated to the investigation. Federal investigators even collected data on calls made by AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.
In 2014, the Obama administration set the record for denying the most Freedom of Information Act requests of any administration. It topped this feat in 2015.
There are only two actions that the Trump administration has taken that can be compared to the Obama-era war on the press. First, the Trump White House barred a CNN reporter in July from a Rose Garden event. Second, the Trump Justice Department seized electronic correspondences between New York Times reporter Ali Watkins and her ex-lover, former Senate Intelligence Committee aide James Wolfe.
Other than the fact that Obama has an extraordinarily ugly legacy of anti-press behavior, he made some great points Friday. He never actually called the news media the “enemy of the people.” He and his lieutenants simply prosecuted and spied on reporters, all while claiming Fox is "an opponent" and not “ really a news station.”
Obama, whose administration prosecuted and spied on reporters, claims Trump is very bad for criticizing newsrooms
Were you just as outraged?
LOL someday you might learn to think for yourself, better finish high school first.
Knee jerk childish retort. You lose.
Ditto ^^^. I'm no loser, time will tell what you'll make of yourself. But with your arrogant attitude, I don't believe you'll succeed in life unless you listen more and speak less. I suspect you've been told before, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
LOL. I'm already a "success". You've shown yourself to be an arrogant, narcissistic ass.Keep engaging me, I'll bury you. The difference between us is great, you think you are the epitome of humanity. You believe yourself to be "superior".
Me? I'm just some guy on the internet who will embarrass and break you.
You'll end up like Mary, (post #38) all mouth and no substance.
