OK, so now it turns out that the Justice Department was spying on Associated Press reporters. That should further endear Eric Holder with the media.
Somehow, I’m not sure that this administration strategery of “distract them from the previous scandal a couple days ago with an even bigger one today” is going to work out all that well for them.
[Update a few minutes later]
Heh.
First time I’ve seen an agency do a Monday news dump bc a Friday news dump failed so spectacularly. It’s like a scandal fire sale.
— J.P. Freire (@JPFreire) May 13, 2013
So I guess the question at this point is: does one scandal distract from the other, or does it reach some kind of critical mass, in which the administration no longer has any credibility on anything?
[Update a few minutes later]
Government is just the word we use for things we do together, like audit political enemies and monitor journalists’ phone calls.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) May 13, 2013
And another one. Twitter is going nuts:
Come on, guys, lay off DOJ. It’s not like they greenlit selling guns to Mexican cartels that ended up being used to kill border patrol.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 13, 2013
The IRS fessed up to SOME of what they’d done to “get ahead of the story”. And sure enough, it appears that what they did was worse than what they admitted to.
However, it was puzzling to me HOW the IRS knew that the story was about to break?
And now we hear of this bugging of AP reporters.
I think that answers the question of how they knew.
Hrmmm… As many of us have long observed, the Obama admin is absolutely dependent upon the cover it gets from the MSM. Perhaps, just perhaps, it might be possible that going after those selfsame reporters they are so dependent upon for help might prove to be, shall we say, a tad unwise? It could be worse though; it could have come in the midst of two major scandals, when the Admin was more needful than ever of help from the press.
Oh. Wait.. it did!
Perhaps this could be filed under the category of “oops”?
Pass the popcorn. I think this one is going to be entertaining as hell.
They were locking reporters in closets and the press at large didn’t care. I doubt this will change the relationship much.
Bingo. This isn’t your father’s national press.
This current generation of the Press reminds me of a sickening case of battered wife syndrome where a terrified woman makes excuses for her abusive husband. “I shouldn’t have provoked him! It’s my fault!”
If this incident doesn’t provoke the Press to outrage, I can’t imagine what would.
“This current generation of the Press reminds me of a sickening case of battered wife syndrome where a terrified woman makes excuses for her abusive husband. ‘I shouldn’t have provoked him! It’s my fault!’”
I think this pretty much describes not just the Press, but “liberalism” in general these days.
RE the update…
Well, I will only observe that Watergate, though sparked by the burglary, was more about a multiplicity of scandals; the cover up, the IRS problem, the SPYING ON THE PRESS issue (to track down leakers) … hrmm, for some reason, that all sounds so very familiar…
I wonder if Obama has the oval office bugged? It’d sure fit the pattern.
You know he does.
You have to have something to auction off to Big Hollywood for the ten-movie series you know is coming.
The media made the current regime, they can destroy it. And now they may have a motive to do so.
Lets hope the shockwave from the implosion pulls in some of the regime’s allies.
I’m not sure they consider this motive. Fact is, they’ve been giving Benghazi Bob hell in the press room even before this became known.
Maybe somebody stopped baking choom into the free brownies in the West Wing commissary.
The media is made up of stupid bimbo (not gender specific) shills. Expecting the media to do their job at this point is fantasy. We already have some that are trying with what result?
Sounds like red-on-red.
Actually, to use their own nomenclature, more like blue on blue.
True dat, Rand. ;-p
Is it possible that the Obama administration blackmailed news organizations like the AP using stuff they found via the tapping? Could it be that’s why the AP et al buried so many stories?
But now the news organizations have found a way out of their predicament?
With apologies to Mel Brooks…
The scene: The Cabinet Meeting Room in the White House, with the President and all cabinet-level officers present:
POTUS: Now these scandals are getting serious. Those dummies in the media are going to be pissed about us spying on them, and they may stop giving ME their unquestioning support! Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve go to do something to save MY phoney-baloney job!
Hedley Lamar (oops, I mean Attorney General Holder): I’ve got it! Mr. POTUS, appoint Joe Biden to head-up an “independent audit” of improper and illegal Federal Government actions toward the media and conservatives! He’s bored anyway now that his gun violence task force job is kaput. And be sure to give Joe a due date for his final report of, hmmm, let’s see…yes, December 2016! You have more than enough admirers left in the media that will buy that stall tactic, lock, stock, and barrel!
“…in which the administration no longer has any credibility on anything?”
No longer has any? I’ll bite, at what point did they EVER have credibility? BHO has been getting a total MSM pass, since he got elected as a Senator. He got a pass through two elections. He got a pass on Obamacare. Up until now, he’s gotten a pass on Benghazi.
Much like the old saw about, “I did nothing when they came for the Jews….”, the MSM was OK with ANYTHING done by the BHO Admin. But now that the MSM is the one getting the short end of the stick, people are shocked that this Admin had the audacity to be checking up on their MSM lap doggies.
What a joke our journalists, and their bosses, are!
Where is that rat’s ass I was ready give? Guess I can’t give anymore.
Is AP going to argue that this threatens their ability to watchdog the executive branch? THAT would be hilarious!
Don’t get mad, get even.
Set copyright and patent law to expire 1 year after publication.
Fast and Furious. Fort Hood. Benghazi. IRS. AP. The scandals keep on coming, along with the coverups, and has any of it made any difference? There could be a Watergate-level scandal every week from now to December 2016 and the Left will still be all-in.
The one possible difference is that this one involves the Press. They obviously don’t give a damn about a bunch of poor Mexicans or US soldiers being killed or the IRS going after conservative groups. Hell, they probably got a chuckle out of that one. But going after their own interests? “Oh no he didn’t!”
Unless, of course, they make excuses for Obama once again. “We had it coming!”
Larry J,
I don’t think even the faaaaar left journalist types can go there.
If you kiss a guys back side for 6 1/2 years, and praise him no matter what he does, says, or reveals, then you don’t HAVE a ‘we deserve it’ in your path going back in that time frame. I’d say they might have gone there if there had been a specific journalist targeted. The thought pattern might have gone like this.
“…well, I have no idea what ‘Charlie’ did, but he musta done something wrong. Obama wouldn’t be going after him other wise!”
They won’t be saying,
“…we didn’t kiss ENOUGH @$$, so I guess, ‘WE’ all deserve it!”
No one ever has that kind of thought pattern. Not unless they live in Berlin in 1942, or with Koresh at Waco or in Jonestown anyway. Even the American MSM isn’t that indoctrinated.
I hope this pushes them away from the current Administration. I hope the investigation proves they were wiretapping not just work related content, but persona phone calls too. If the media folks find out they were telling the Feds about their wives, kids, dogs and loves and NOT just their stories, the fit will hit the shan!
Even the American MSM isn’t that indoctrinated.
I’d like to believe your statement is true but the evidence is lacking. We’ll see how the story gets covered in the next few weeks, won’t we?
And the hits keep on coming: EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups
Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.
Drip, drip, drip.
While the words “President Joe Biden” still send a cold shiver down my spine, I guess I could learn to live with it.
Larry – rest easy. Your worries that Biden would become President are baseless:
Biden will suddenly realize he wants to spend more time with his family (and play with his model trains), and Obama will appoint Hillary as VP.
Feel better?
From Politico:
“Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records…”
No really? And this comes as a surprise to you jamokes?
“In conversations with POLITICO on Tuesday, several AP staffers in Washington, D.C., described feelings of anger and frustration with the DOJ and with the Obama administration in general.”
No………… really? You are angry and frustrated that the Chicago Thug took you downtown?
““People are pretty mad — mad that government has not taken what we do seriously,” one reporter said on Tuesday.”
Awwwwww you really expected the Chicago Thug to take you seriously when you’ve proven yourselves syncophantic Obama butt-kissers since the 2008 election? You really think you are worthy of being taken serious? Is your dignity bruised because your world view collapsed?
awwwwwwww.
“We all know that confidential sourcing is the lifeblood of what we do…”
really AP? This is the sum total of the issue here? That your sources dried up?
That’s it?
“Nobody is downtrodden,” an AP reporter told POLITICO.”
Oooooh what brave brave boys you are…..
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/inside-the-ap-fear-determination-91338.html?hp=t1_3
Ryan Lizza has a good summary on Twitter:
Recap: GOP calls on Holder to investigate leaks. Holder appoints US Attorney. US Att. subpoenas AP records. GOP calls on Holder to resign.
So, the Senate Intelligence committee concludes, “There has been just a cascade of leaks coming out of the intelligence community in the last several weeks and months,”. This after the House Intelligence committee reported it “will investigate recent leaks, but the CIA and the Justice Department national security division said they would not cooperate.”
So this leads Obama to say the “Leakers will be punished”, and he asks Holder to appoint a US Attorney that
investigates the DOJinvestigates the CIAinvestigates DOD officials with knowledgeinvestigates State officials with knowledgewire taps the phone line in the Congressional gallery used by journalist, along with nearly 2 dozen other AP phone lines.
So when John Cornyn said: “This administration cannot be trusted to investigate itself”. He was right.
And, like in Fast and Furious, the Ft. Hood shooting, and the murder of Amb Stevens; nobody has been punished.
Sure, like Holder is going to prosecute Biden for leaking classified information. There is a Dr sitting in a Pakistani prision who might like it to happen but even he knows that it wont.