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Nixonian or Obamaesque? Obama Administration Spied On Associated Press Editors and Reporters

220px-Richard_NixonPresident_Barack_ObamaI recently published a column on how Barack Obama has publicly assumed many of the powers that were once cited as the basis for the investigation and attempted impeachment of Richard Nixon. One of those areas was the Obama Administration’s crackdown on journalists. This week Attorney General Eric Holder appears to have yet again added to this ignoble record. It appears that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press. This disclosure follows another recent disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeted conservative groups associated with the Tea Party. Yet, once again, most Democrats remain silent in a type of cult of personality where principle is discarded in favor of loyalty to the President.


The spying on reporters by the Obama Administration included outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters. The seizure covered general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn. The Justice Department showed no restraint or concern, even including the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. It now appears that in a few years historians could well be saying the Nixon was perfectly Obamaesque in his abuses.

AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt has written a letter to Holder objecting to the spying, noting that “[t]here can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters.” I would be equally upset with the mere fact of the spying as opposed to its breadth.

The spying may be part of a criminal investigation into a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. AP agreed to hold the story after an objection from the Administration but ultimately ran the story disclosing a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States. While working with the Administration in holding the story, the Administration apparently was moving to spy on five reporters and an editor who were involved in the story.

Holder would have to have personally approved the subpoenas under Justice Department regulations.  However, it is not enough to again criticize Holder (who has assembled one of the most abusive records on civil liberties in our history).  Obama is well aware of the objections by civil libertarians and personally approved such decisions as promising CIA officials that they would not be investigated for torture and the kill list policy.

What is most striking about this story is the sense of complete immunity and lack of concern shown by the Administration. That sense of impunity has developed over four years as Democrats have gone into radio silence over abuses by the Administration from Obama’s “kill list” policy to other rollbacks on civil liberties. There will come a day when this president is no longer in office and many Democrats and Liberals will be faced with the imperial presidency that he created in the hands of someone they do not revere. When that day comes, it will be hard to climb over the mountain of hypocrisy to find a principled ground for criticism.

Source: CNN

289 thoughts on “Nixonian or Obamaesque? Obama Administration Spied On Associated Press Editors and Reporters”

  3. I think we must seriously consider holding impeachment hearings

  4. Holder is a wierd snide little animal who looks like he came from NYC. He is against Cardinal Nation and so we are against him.
    Support Cardinal Nation on the West Bank. West Bank of the Mississippi that is.

  5. Ryan Lizza:

    Recap: GOP calls on Holder to investigate leaks. Holder appoints US Attorney. US Att. subpoenas AP records. GOP calls on Holder to resign.

  7. Blouise, I agree totally. However, the Jerry Springer fans vote, and they vote on visuals and 30 second ads. That’s the reality.

  8. This story is on all the major networks (Fox is having a field day with this).

    However, I have always taken a different approach when I hear or read about these blown-out-of-proportion stories: what is transpiring around world (or here), not being reported at this time, either online, in writing, or via the major news networks?

  9. nick,

    They have to create drama ’cause they view us all as a Jerry Springer audience and need to get us to the polls for the Primaries.

    Those of us who actually care about governance have to endure the crap and go to sites like this to actually discuss the issues and debate the possibilities. Every once in awhile we manage to get someone like Elizabeth Warren elected but only because the Springer audience was out to lunch.

  11. Gene,

    Oops … sorry, I read that wrong … or I read it as I wanted it to be. 😉

    Semi-detached but with empathy … something his father lacks? A Cesare/Juan situation (speaking of Machiavelli and thus coming full circle)

  12. SWM/Blouise, How many times do you think we’ll see the “What difference does it make” if Hillary runs? I don’t care if you consider this all politics, or how this all shakes out. Those histrionics were a mistake, particularly when you’re wearing Mr. Magoo specs. And SWM, Carney lied in November about the changes in the talking points. Only a kool aid drinker can’t see that.

  13. Blouise,

    Tywin, not his son Tyrion. The father was healthy as a lion. Tyrion is though in his own weird way as you say “crippled” and I don’t mean his dwarfism. He’s Machiavellian enough to be both his father’s son and an attractive friend to Varys, but he’s crippled by his heart, in specific his love for Shae. He’s almost detached. If he were a garage, he’d be semi-detached. 😀

  16. In a bizarre twist in the non-scandal known as Benghazi, it appears that someone doctored an email from Ben Rhodes to make it appear that he was more interested in protecting the State Department than telling the truth of what happened during the Benghazi attacks.

    Ben Rhodes is a hard target of the right wing over the whole Benghazi invention. A search on the terms CBS and Ben Rhodes shows page after page of efforts to smear Rhodes by making hay out of the fact that his brother is a top CBS executive.

    Rhodes is a target because of leaked emails reported by ABC and the Weekly Standard which seemed to indicate Rhodes was more interested in protecting the State Department than he was in telling the truth about what happened. This is why the right is so focused on the talking points now. They’re sure they were filled with lies.

    It turns out the only real lie was one told by whoever leaked those emails. Jake Tapper has the story: From Crooks and Liars

  17. Blouse,

    This is for you: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”
    — Albert Einstein

    I know who the first two were.. But Chernow escaped me…. Now that I see the links to his books… The year was 2004…. That was about the time I was existing to survive…. Read very little outside of what I had to…. Then, 2007 the drum roll started….. And all I recall is wipe out….lol

  18. “Okee, this had me spitting up coffee!” (James Knauer)

    Gene was supposed to answer with something off color alluding to going deeper but decided not to bite.

    We take our Game of Thrones seriously.

  19. Gene,

    ” … as you know I have a stated preference against euphemistic language”

    Yeah, it was a risk on my part.

    ” … specifically Lord Varys and Tywin Lannister.” Notably, both “crippled”, if you will … physically flawed but morally whole? Or am I summing it up wrong?

  20. AY,

    Each are respected biographers for … Adams/Jefferson/Hamilton … so let each place themselves through correspondence (as Adams and Jefferson did) with the addition of Hamilton (the what if he’d lived guy) and jumping off of the original letters … write a do-over injecting Hamilton into the mix and concocting letters from Jefferson and Adams in response to Hamilton’s … etc.

    A novel or a stage play … the big What If

    Too little to do today so my imagination is running amuck.

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