German theologian Martin Niemöller is enjoying a mini-renaissance. In the last 24 hours, his famous exhortation to rise up against tyranny before it’s too late (“When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out”) has appeared in two columns. Yesterday, the verse from which the line came was rehearsed in its entirety by James Taranto. Today, it is the lead-in to a report by The Daily Beast’s Kirtsen Powers on the revelation that the Obama Justice Department “spied” on Fox News Channel’s chief Washington correspondent James Rosen.
Tempting as it must have been for Powers to write, “First they came for Fox News, and they did not speak out,” the Obama administration’s abuse of the press is nothing new. As early as 2011, the White House punished Carla Marinucci, a reporter for the ulta-liberal San Francisco Chronicle, for daring to capture an unflattering video of Obama at a fundraiser. The ridiculous claim that Marinucci had been banished from covering Obama on future Bay area visits because she was a member of the “print pool” and had violated protocol by using a video capture device was never challenged by the MSM. That is because the story was never reported by the MSM.
The James Rosen story, in contrast, has struck a nerve among left-leaning members of the fourth estate for whom the knowledge that the administration is not above seizing their email accounts is anathema. The Daily Caller has gathered up nearly a dozen tweets from Obama’s staunchest admirers. Here are several:
Case against Fox’s Rosen, in which O admin is criminalizing reporting, makes all of the other “scandals” look like giant nothing burgers.
If James Rosen’s “clandestine communications plan” were illegal, every journalist in Washington would be locked up. Unreal.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013
#Fox Rosen probe as bad/worse than #AP: in unprecedented move, govt says he “conspired” with leaker to get info; that’s what reporters do!
Hey Jay @presssec Carney. If the Bush DOJ had done this to your reporters when you were Time DC bureau chief, how would you have responded?
1:20 PM – 15 May 2013 from Pico Rivera, CA, United States
Accusing James Rosen of committing crimes – for basic reporting – may be the most dangerous thing the Obama DOJ has done yet
Just This: U cross a big line when u go from investigating journos to prosecute leakers to accusing journos of commitng crimes by doing job
Wow. Obama-era leak crackdowns on journalists look worse and worse: http://m.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-peek-into-a-justice-department-leak-probe/2013/05/19/0bc473de-be5e-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html …
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