Because the president can seize stuff from news outlets when he’s investigating a crime:

Asked to address the controversial seizure of phone logs from Associated Press journalists by the Department of Justice, President Barack Obama on Thursday said he had no regrets for prosecuting individuals responsible for leaking classified information because they placed the country at risk.

“I make no apologies and I don’t think the American people would expect me as commander-in-chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed,” he said, standing alongside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the White House Rose Garden.

I wonder how far this logic goes. If the Feds are investigating a murder in Los Angeles, can they just clean the hard drive of every LA Times reporter who may have gotten a tip?

5 replies on “Obama Has “No Apologies” for Spying on Reporters”

  1. He didn’t seize anything. The DOJ subpoenaed phone records from the phone company. The target isn’t a journalist, or the AP, but a government worker who leaked classified information.

  2. It would also be nice if news items about the investigation could mention that the leak revealed the identity of a CIA agent. It’s not like the president just hates reporters, it’s that someone with knowledge of what US intelligence is doing is handing information to reporters that jeopardizes the safety of the people we are putting in harm’s way.

    You can think whatever you want about how the US deploys intelligence assets, but as long as they’re risking their lives, we ought to hold up a minimum standard of safety that includes “the government will not reveal your identity.”

  3. Yeah, I’d be pissed if the government was targeting people who do what I do, too. Sad that the media don’t share this outrage over spying on Arab college students, radical politicos, etc.

  4. Merc, the press is not on the right side of this one. The reporters who cover national intelligence issues KNOW that this kind of reporting leads to compromised national security, and yet they publish anyway. I’m far from being an apologist for our national security apparatus, but I have no problem with legally subpoenaing (?) reporters records to identify and prosecute the source of the leak. If that leads to less leaking of sensitive information in the future, great.

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