Fox News' Roger Ailes: Administration's Excuses Won't Work, Americans Died For Press Freedom

[Geee]

Town Hall:

 

Dear colleagues,

 

 

The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into question whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligation to preserve and protect a free press in the United States. We reject the government's efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a "co-conspirator" in a crime. I know how concerned you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government make me afraid to use a work phone or email account to gather news or even call a friend or family member? Well, they shouldn’t have done it. The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.

 

[Valin]

Jake Tapper On Team Obamas Outrageous Treatment of the Press

Hugh Hewitt & Jake Tapper

5/24/13

 

(Snip)

 

HH: All right, well lets go back and look at what was one of the most extraordinary weeks in the Obama presidency, and perhaps in a long time. I want to play for you the President yesterday talking about journalism and national security, cut number two, I think:

 

 

BO: But a free press is also essential for our democracy. Thats who we are. And Im troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable. Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law. Thats why Ive called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach. And Ive raised these issues with the Attorney General who shares my concern.

HH: So Jake Tapper, Im very relieved to hear that, but Im not sure I believe it. Whats your reaction to the Presidents assurances that we shouldnt be prosecuted for doing what we do?

 

JT: Well, heres the thing. They arent prosecuting journalists. Thats not the point. Nobody has objected, James Rosen is not indicted, the Fox News reporter. The Associated Press reporters who broke their story, theyre not in trouble. The New York Times reporter, James Risen, hes not being prosecuted. And this is the legalese and the lawyers in the Obama administration, whether its President Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder, are leaning on. The problem isnt that journalists are being prosecuted. Theyre not. Were not. The problem is that people in leak investigations are not able to find out where the leaks are coming from by investigating people who have the sensitive information. So what theyre doing is they are targeting the journalists in question who are printing stories about things that the government doesnt want them to be printing. Sometimes, you could make an argument that its a state, you know, its a matter of national security. Other times, its obviously just things that the governments embarrassed about or doesnt want to get out on the reporters terms. They target the reporter, they get a judge to sign off on a warrant to search the private email accounts of this reporter, and that is, in the view of many people who advocate for a free and fair press, a violation of the guarantee of a free press. Thats not, thats really the issue. So when Eric Holder said in his Congressional testimony that he wouldnt, you know, that he doesnt know of any cases where journalists are being prosecuted, thats technically correct. But that doesnt mean that what theyre doing is right, because what it does is, it has a chilling effect on what journalists do, because then

 

HH: And on that point, let me play

 

JT: People who share information are reluctant to talk to journalists, because journalists are now under this microscope.

 

(Snip)