Chuck Todd of NBC News this morning did a good and succinct job of laying out the problems with the massive Justice Department culling of Associated Press phone records.
Todd notes the crux of the issue: Reporters rely on confidentiality to do their jobs. No confidentiality – then no scoops, no information the government doesn’t want you to have, no accountability.
Once people think – and the damage has already been done here – that their phone call with you could end up in a government database, they will not be talking to you. That’s one reason the press came up with so few scoops in, say, the Soviet Union.
Well, okay, perhaps sources will meet you in the shadows of some Washington area garage for a furtive chat – it’s been done, but it’s highly inconvenient.
This could well be the worst kind of government intimidation of the press and threat to the First Amendment we have seen in a very long time.
44 thoughts on “Chuck Todd: This is “Absolutely Chilling””
I must have awoken in some alternate universe. Chuck Todd is appalled and Bill O’Reilly sees nothing criminal in the AP story. He even went to far as to almost say, “move on, nothing to see here.”
Here’s my take. Obama journ-o-lists felt they were helping their man by staying on the narrative. They felt it was their duty to make sure the man was right all the time. That the R’s were to blame for all the evil in his administration. Now that the AP reporters have been played, and played big time, and the others wonder if they are next, NOW they are unhappy.
It’s utterly hypocritical for any Obama water carrier to be appalled now.
Bill has been quite critical of the AP’s advocacy–I did not hear him say what you said, but I do sort of zone out self-protectively sometimes.
Well, here in Calif. I can copy THE FIVE at 2:00 pm and when Bill O’Reilly comes on we watch The FIVE INSTEAD. It works
for us.
Quoting another commenter from elsewhere:
“They found out Obama lied when he said he would respect them in the morning.”
: – )) And now they are having his baby, they’ll find out if he stands by them.
And if that baby will look just like Goebbels.
Todd’s probably just concerned they have something on him. CYA. Although his heart must be broken.
That Mika is not calling herself a journalist, is she? She’s safe.
Mika = useless, stuck-up, clue-less, spoiled, liberal, biased news bimbo.
LS – That’s a partial description. I’ll keep the site family friendly.
don’t forget she’s also a recipient of affirmative nepotism: daddy Zbigniew was one of Jimmy Carter’s Jew-hating crew back in the ’70s.
The main complaint that the DOJ obtained the phone records of the AP reporters isn’t really the worst of it as you infer; the phone records of those who called the AP are on the record.
The DOJ could learn next to nothing with “phone records” other than A talked to B. When the truth emerges we won’t be surprised that their phone calls were recorded,. not just noted.
Watergate reporter blasts WH for attackers on media
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/14/watergate-reporter-blasts-white-house-for-attack-on-media/
Ha ha, he’s another Obama lover getting his due.
The absolute BEST part of that segment this morning was watching live as Mika was forced to just twist in the wind as her dear beloved Obama was ripped from one end to the other for his incompetence and arrogance.
AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mika is such a sourpuss, she frowns like no one else I know, and gets her panties in a bunch over anything critical of Obama. I watched it too, with glee!
I don’t watch MSNBC much, but she was notceably quieter and more subdued than usual.
I wish I didn’t have to but how else to better know what the enemy is up to then watch Scarborough and Mika in the morning. Thank God for DVR’s and fast forward though! :)
What is an MSNBC? Just kidding. I never watch it, unless
Fox plays something from them that is really stupid. Which, of
course, is a lot.
I watched MSNBC the nite Scott Brown won the special election for “Teddy’s seat” in Massachusetts. that was sweet with a capital S.
Seems as though some of these “lap dog” media “folks” are finding out they’ve been feeding on Purina monkey chow instead of the Alpo that
Ovomit promised!….( hate when that happens)
After such a long passionate love affair, has Obama finally overplayed his hand?
Chuck Todd sounds genuinely furious over this.
Imagine Obama surviving if the media turns on him.
What concerns me about the wiretapping story is why is this information coming out now?
The AP is clearly a propaganda arm of this regime.
This regime was damaged by testimony of the Benghazi whistleblowers last week.
Is this an effort to keep future whistleblowers from contacting the press or Congress because now they know Big Brother will know who they are and what secrets they are revealing?
Better get a readjustment on my foil hat because I’m starting to see sinister plots behind everything these people do.
I think this story coming out just after the one about the IRS is suspicious. I cannot imagine it’s fortuitous–the odds are too great.
If the administration would roll over on these events, how bad is the truth about FCMABBHO’s role in Benghazi?
I’m with you. When the IRS comes forward on their own to admit they committed an illegal act, I’m not buying that they just wanted to do right.
Was the IRS meant to cover Benghazi, and if so, then what the heck is the DOJ scandal?
If there ever was a time for the tin foil hat, it’s now.
This really does make Watergate look like a third-rate burglary.
Hmmm…is little Chuckie really growing a spine? Or is this just a case of ‘look at the shiny object…over there’? He did act up in Israel a couple of months ago when he dared to ask his Master about his powerlessness in the peace process. Hope this is a sign that the rats are indeed beginning to jump ship!
speaking of spines….Obama last night told the Weinstein crowd that Limbaugh is the reason for D.C. gridlock…
Rush just offered to meet with Obama — at Obama’s convenience — and work together to resolve any differences.
Watch for Obama’s daily schedule to soon start at 6 AM, so that he can be “too busy” laser focused on transformation to meet with Mr. Limbaugh.
Just had an idea on how to pay off the debt. Somehow get Obama to agree to debate Rush on live satellite T.V. The Pay Per View revenue that would roll in from the entire world wanting to watch Rush clean the floor with the organizer’s arrogant ass would be more than enough to pay off the national debt and even leave some left over for “re”-“re”-distribution.
Geoff:
I like your idea so much that I suggested the same thing several months ago.
Now, can we get the real movers and shakers to make it a reality?
Can the “spine of steel” in the White House make a “gutsy call” and really do something to benefit the middle class?
And no one questions his sanity??? Any critical thinkers in that room…Timberlake? Hilfiger? Biel? Rather than going after Obama from the standpoint of multiple scandals, I truly believe impeachment proceedings should begin based on his inability to carry out his duties, i.e. gross incompetence! His rantings are those of a madman:
Snipped:
“My thinking was when we beat them in 2012 that might break the fever, and it’s not quite broken yet,” Obama said, according to a pool reporter.
“I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them,” Obama said. “And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government.”
If Republicans refuse to go along with his agenda, Obama suggested he would work to defeat them in the 2014 midterm elections.
“If there are folks who are more interested in winning elections than they are thinking about the next generation, then I want to make sure there are consequences to that.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-gridlock-blame-limbaugh/2013/05/13/id/504288#ixzz2THtynMTN
“If there are folks who are more interested in winning elections than they are thinking about the next generation, then I want to make sure there are consequences to that.”
I don’t know about that, but I do know that there are some “folks” who were more interested in winning an election than trying to save Americans’ lives in Benghazi.
this guy gives hypocrisy a bad name.
Do you think it may have dawned on the dinosaur media that if they actually COVER these new scandals they’ll get the viewership/readership they once had back? I know I was personally shocked! shocked I tell you! that the WaPo actually gave the Manchild-in-Chief four pinocchios or that Chrissie Todd seems to have found his manhood today!
(Sing to reporters who have fallen under Obama’s spell;)
“Take care young ladies and value your wine
Be watchful of young men in their velvet prime
Deeply they’ll swallow from your finest kegs
Then swiftly be gone leaving bitter dregs
Oh, oh oh oh…
Bitter dregs
With smiling words and tender touch
Man offers little and asks for so much
He loves in the breathless excitement of night
Then leaves with your treasure
In cold morning light
Oh, oh oh oh…
In Cold Morning Light”
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=54840
And he won’t call you, either, although he DID arrange it so someone else can pay for your abortion if you’re carrying his child…not HIM, never HIM, but some taxpayer somewhere’s got it for you…
Paging Dr. Gosnell! Dr. Gosnell! AP on line 2…
LMAO! when it comes to NBC “News”.
…bunch of biased,sycophants…
Stops being funny when it starts being YOU, eh, Chuck?
Good point.
The neo-Marxist, anti-Semitic, anti-American, pro-Islamic media loves it when the Tea Party gets audited. But the moment AP is hit with a subpeana …. the world comes to an end.
*I love it* … in fact, if DOJ agents were to raid AP’s office’s I would cheer prophetically.
The filth and scum of the leftist media is FINALLY getting buggered by the Obama Administration, the administration THEY ELECTED.
… and I hope there is no lube.
Why is everyone surprised?
White House Advisor Anita Dunn’s favorite chum is Mao Tse Tung, a genocidal dictator that exterminated 61,000,000 Chinese, half of which were starved to death in the northern regions of China during the “Great Leap Forward” 1946-1969. Half the administration has some type of neo-Marxist affiliation or belief and the President himself is linked to the American terrorist William Ayres, Palestinian terrorist-associated the late Professor Edward Said and the American Communist Frank Marshall Davis.
The Obama Administration is simply following lockstep, in the neo-Marxist legacy provided, courtesy of its favorite sons: Lenin, Che, Ho, Mao and Fidel.
Now I wish they’d investigate the changed R.O.E. our service people are forced to live – or die by! Research it like their lives depend on it! And, why so many of our top brass are leaving… is that the norm? Come on, press, while you are “on a roll”!!!!!!! Could be an award winning story out there.
Your commentary on the Justice Department’s culling of Reporters’ Emails is, at best, distorted, and at worst a kind of “lick-spittle” defense on the “outrageous attack of the holy grail integrity” of the vaunted free press! Here is another point of view from this writer that you and your colleagues have assiduously refused to recognize. The State Department has NOT monitored any of the conversations of the calls subpoenied. The purpose was to ascertain the possible person in the government who leaked Top Secret information to the press that has endangered who knows how many secret operatives working undercover to protect our freedoms. In my opinion, if even one of these operatives should loose their lives because of this leak and the subsequent printing of this information by a “poor put-upon” member of the press both he and your darling reporter ought to get life in prison for being complicit in the murder of one of our patriots! One may be a member of the vaunted free press, but that is not liscense to do any God damned thing they want to do!!
Well the leftwing, government propaganda media is in a tizzy now because they may be personally affected by the dictator-in-chief’s latest attack on freedom. Typical. Their god can do no wrong until he comes after them which, if they knew anything of history, they would know once the useful idiots aren’t needed for the success of the dictator, the dictator throws them under the bus or simply makes them disappear.
Good for Chuck Todd. It’s interesting to watch what Dems/Press Members go after Obama while the others continue to treat him like the Messiah. Over the past few months, I have meet with people on the “inside” as they say. Like many have suspected, a lot of Dems/Press Members cannot stand the guy and feel enough is enough.
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