White House Spies on Fox Reporter

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 19, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                         

              Calling the Justice Department’s spying on cell phone records of 20 Associated Press reporters and editors “unconstitutional,” AP’s CEO Greg Pruitt blasted the White House for violating First Amendment rights.  Reporting that Fox News reporter James Rosen had his emails hacked, cell phone records purged and movements tracked in-and-out of the State Department, the Washington Post highlighted Atty. Gen. Eric Holder’s recent busy activity.  With heads likely to roll at the Justice Department and FBI, both agencies justified spying activities on accredited news agencies.  Showing that the FBI must do its job, the agent’s affidavit accused Rosen of breaking anti-espionage laws under the Patriot Act, giving the government more leeway to compromise the First Amendment rights of the free press   Accusing Rosen of breaking anti-espionage laws goes over the top.

             White House officials have a lot of explaining to do sending White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer on five Sunday morning national talk shows to explain recent IRS targeting of right wing nonprofit groups.  Reacting defiantly, President Barack Obama said last week he made “no apologies” for investigating national security leads, suggesting he approved his 62-year-old AG’s spying on AP reporters.  Obama walks a slippery slope denying anything improper, while, at the same time, admitting it’s OK to spy on reporters linked to State Department security leaks.  “The president is a strong defender of the First Amendment and a firm believer in the need for the press to be unfettered in its ability to conduct investigative reporting and facilitate a free-flow of information,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, also on the defensive over revelations about the IRS and FBI scrutiny.

             If Obama were really such a strong backer of the First Amendment he wouldn’t have given the green light to Holder to get the FBI to investigate legitimate journalists.  You can’t have it both ways:  Giving the press the job of watching over the government’s constitutional abuses, while, simultaneously, harassing them for doing their job.  Where’s the national security significance of investigating White House or State Department leaks?  “He [Obama] also, of course, recognizes the need for the Justice Department to investigate alleged criminal activity without undue influence,” said Carney, in another non sequitur.  What’s “undue influence” have to do with the press?  Journalists, to protect First Amendment freedoms, are the ones that need to be free of government harassment—not the other way around.  Giving Holder the go-ahead to investigate journalists crossed a dangerous line.

             Blaming journalists for doing their jobs isn’t the best way to encourage the news industry to get out all the facts.  While there’s a time-and-place for the government to protect U.S. national security, it’s also tempting to hide behind “national security” threats to justify egregious constitutional abuses.  Carney’s explanation of the government’s right to investigate “alleged criminal activity” underscores that Holder’s Justice Department took its orders from the president.  Making a circumstantial case against Rosen for pursuing foreign policy issues regarding North Korea doesn’t rise to the level of “alleged criminal activity” warranting Justice Department or FBI involvement.  Accusing journalists of spying without concrete proof is a feeble excuse to violate the First Amendment.  Holder needed to show much more about Rosen than emails and phone conversations with a State Department employee.

             When Rose filed his report June 11, 2012 about more North Korean nuclear activity in response to U.N. sanctions, Rose cited his sources inside the CIA.  Given the sparse number of North Korean nuclear experts at the State Department, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Rosen’s source.  Fingering North Korean expert Jin-Woo Kim, the Justice Department notified the FBI of Rosen’s contacts inside the Justice Department.  Last time anyone checked, reporters have considerable leeway to ascertain facts for given stories without Justice Dept. or FBI intimidation or harassment.  “From the beginning of their relationship, the Reporter asked, solicited and encouraged Mr. Kim to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information about the Foreign Country,” said FBI agent Reginald Reyes, justifying intrusion into Rosen’s constitutional rights.

             Trampling on Fox News and Rosen’s constitutional rights, Reyes continue his feeble excuses.  “The Reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim’s vanity and ego,” said Reyes, reporting on his textbook FBI training on coaxing false confessions from witnesses.  Playing to someone’s vanity or ego is so general, so vague and so sophomoric, it’s hardly an excuse to see Rosen as a double-agent.  “Much like an intelligence officer would run a clandestine intelligence source, the Reporter instructed Mr. Kim on a covert communication plan,” making a case against Rosen for espionage.  When reporters coax information from witnesses, it always seems like a cloak-and-dagger operation.  No one accused in the Watergate days Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of espionage and treason, other than guilty members of the Nixon White House.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.