James Rosen

WashPost's Pincus Attacks Journalists for Defending Fox News's Rosen
By Ken Shepherd | May 28, 2013 | 6:46 PM EDT

Last Tuesday, the Washington Post's Walter Pincus did his level best to dutifully defend the Obama/Holder DOJ's handling of the Associated Press phone records subpoena. Ol' Walt is back at it again this week, chastising the media for "circling the wagons" around Fox News correspondent James Rosen, who was virtually treated like a criminal by the Justice Department when he was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a leak investigation.

"When First Amendment advocates say Rosen was "falsely" characterized as a co-conspirator, they do not understand the law," huffed Pincus. "When others claim this investigation is 'intimidating a growing number of government sources,' they don't understand history." Lucky for us we have Pincus to school us all, I suppose. But the fact remains that when you consider the timeline of the investigation, there appears to be no legitimate reason for the FBI to have gone on a fishing expedition through Rosen's emails and phone records, considering what they already knew from their investigation of government records that narrowed down the leak to one suspect: intelligence adviser Stephen Jin-Woo Kim.

Roger Ailes Rallies the Troops: 'To Be a Fox Journalist Is a High Honor, Not a High Crime'
By Tim Graham | May 24, 2013 | 9:54 PM EDT

Fox News boss Roger Ailes wrote a pep-rally memo to his employees in the wake of the James Rosen investigation news. Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple called it a "masterpiece."

"For all those who wonder what it is about Ailes that endears his people to him — and that makes him such a good interviewee for any media reporter lucky enough to get an audience with him — just read this," he wrote:

CNN Ignores Eric Holder Approving Seizure of Fox Reporter's E-Mails
By Matt Hadro | May 24, 2013 | 3:21 PM EDT

[UPDATED BELOW] News broke on Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder approved the Justice Department's seizure of a Fox News reporter's private e-mails. CNN still has yet to report this development, although the network found time to cover Brad Pitt's "face blindness" on Friday.

Host Jake Tapper ripped into the Obama administration on Wednesday for its investigation of Rosen, but on Thursday NBCNews.com reported that Holder personally approved the search warrant, labeling Rosen a "possible co-conspirator" against the Espionage Act. CNN still hasn't reported this, as of Friday afternoon.

WaPo's Marimow Fails to Reveal 18-month Delay in Unsealing Rosen Warrant Which Crossed 2012 Election Until Judge 'Apologizes'
By Tom Blumer | May 24, 2013 | 1:13 AM EDT

One obvious question which occurred to me and I suspect others when I read Ann Marimow's first account at the Washington Post dated May 19 of the search warrant issued in 2009 for the personal emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen was: "Where has this thing been hiding?"

The "Affadavit for Search Warrant" is dated May 28, 2010. Why did it come out just this week? Marimow didn't say. More stories followed, still without explanation. It's not unreasonable to believe that the Post might have sat on knowledge of its existence, and that someone who works at the U.S. Court may have deliberately worked to keep it invisible for 18 months after it was supposed to have been unsealed in November 2011.

On Fox Business, MRC's Tim Graham Says Obama Team's Rosen Probe Caused Liberal Media to 'Rally Around Fox News'
By NB Staff | May 23, 2013 | 10:07 PM EDT

MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham appeared Thursday on the Fox Business program "Varney & Co." to discuss whether the Obama scandals were going to turn the media elites around on Barack Obama. Graham said this is a temporary rough patch. But he said his cynical side was surprised that other reporters embraced Fox News reporter James Rosen after the Obama administration conducted surveillance of his phone calls.

Graham said, "The Obama administration did something backwards here, because what that [Rosen surveillance] story does is cause the rest of the entire media, the liberal media, to rally around Fox News. So that’s not the kind of day they want to have."

CBS Spotlights 'Firestorm' Over 'Obama's War on Journalism'; ABC Punts
By Matthew Balan | May 23, 2013 | 1:02 PM EDT

The Big Three networks coverage so far of the Justice Department's questionable investigation of Fox News' James Rosen has followed a similar pattern to that of their coverage of the Kermit Gosnell case. Jan Crawford's report on Thursday's CBS This Morning was the first full report on growing controversy on ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts. NBC briefly covered the investigation on Tuesday's Today, and ABC has yet to mention it.

Crawford pointed out how the DOJ's "unprecedented" surveillance of Rosen has "really just set off a firestorm of criticism from the left and right. For the first time ever, a presidential administration is treating news reporting like a crime, and a reporter like a criminal suspect." [audio available here; video below the jump]

Fournier: Obama's 'Jihad Against the Press' Makes it More Likely We'll Have 'Dumb Wars'
By Noel Sheppard | May 23, 2013 | 10:07 AM EDT

With each passing day, it's becoming clearer and clearer that many of the current White House resident's followers in the media are really angered by his attack on the Associated Press and Fox News's James Rosen.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday, the National Journal's Ron Fournier said of this issue, "You can't make journalism a conspiracy...The irony here is that President Obama, by raising a jihad against the press, has now made it more likely that we’re going to have what he called 'dumb wars'" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Actual Huffington Post Headline: 'OH NO: Fox News Is RIGHT!'
By Noel Sheppard | May 22, 2013 | 4:19 PM EDT

The perilously liberal Huffington Post just can't stand the idea that it could possibly agree with Fox News.

On Wednesday, the Post published the following headline at its front page: "OH NO: Fox News Is RIGHT!"

New York Times: Obama Administration 'Threatening Fundamental Freedoms of the Press'
By Noel Sheppard | May 22, 2013 | 3:35 PM EDT

"With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible 'co-conspirator' in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."

So shockingly began a New York Times editorial Wednesday.

Al Hunt On Rosen Outrage: Obama 'No Better Than Nixon'; Holder Should Take Hike
By Mark Finkelstein | May 22, 2013 | 9:19 AM EDT

How worried should President Obama be when he loses the likes of Al Hunt?

On today's Morning Joe, discussing the James Rosen outrage, Hunt called President Obama "no better than Richard Nixon" when it comes to the press. He then strongly suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder should go. View the video after the jump.

Milbank Slams Obama on James Rosen Probe: 'As Flagrant an Assault on Civil Liberties' As Anything Bush Did
By Tim Graham | May 22, 2013 | 8:05 AM EDT

Up until now, the funniest thing Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has said in the Obama years is “I think the media would love to have an Obama scandal to cover.” Well, Milbank has finally found a scandal that upsets him: the leak investigation of Fox News reporter James Rosen.

“The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.” It’s shaking Milbank’s confidence that the other Obama scandals aren’t scandals:

Juan Williams: The Obama Administration Has Criminalized Journalism
By Nathan Roush | May 21, 2013 | 5:53 PM EDT

On Tuesday's Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor and Emmy-winning journalist Juan Williams accused the Obama Justice Department of having "criminalized journalism" by investigating Fox News correspondent James Rosen. Williams claimed that such probing by the administration “makes it difficult for journalists to do business” and posed the question, “How do you do journalism if you are treated as a criminal for asking for information?” [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

This revelation, of course, comes close on the heels of the DOJ seizing phone and email records of several Associated Press employees during a leak investigation concerning a CIA operation to foil a terror bomb plot. However, in the Rosen case, the Justice Department has “specifically gone after Rosen and Fox as co-conspirators in the case,” according to Williams, whereas “there is no such listing of AP as a co-conspirator.” In all his years of reporting, Williams said that this particular case against Rosen “stands out in a bright way to me” because it shows that the administration is trying to criminalize certain types of reporting.