Earlier today it was reported that several Fox News reporters were targeted by the Department of Justice over interaction with an employee(s) at the State Department. In the investigation, Fox News’ James Rosen was fingered by the DOJ not as just a reporter getting “classified” information, but an “aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator.” This is such a shocking charge that even The New Yorker has come to Rosen’s support.
The focus on Rosen was reported in the Washington Post on May 20 with the paper wondering if the Obama administration’s goal was to intimidate reporters. The Post also said the investigation went nearly to the point of criminalizing standard news-gathering.
For The New Yorker, this is all quite chilling.
Noting that Rosen hasn’t been charged with any crime yet, New Yorker goes on to say that the DOJ’s actions are shocking.
“It is unprecedented for the government, in an official court document, to accuse a reporter of breaking the law for conducting the routine business of reporting on government secrets,” Ryan Lizza writes.
John Nolte noted earlier, this is all having the intended “chilling effect” on journalists.
As Nolte notes, the outcome of targeting journalists will be that the media will only report what the government tells it to report. It will end up being state controlled media not just by sympathy, but by direct control.
