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Why DOJ Didn't Need a "Super Search Warrant" To Snoop On Fox News' E-mail
awaissoft writes "If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News' e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a 'super search warrant.' A super search warrant's requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts. But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a century ago, Holder was able to obtain a normal search warrant — lacking those extensive privacy protections — that allowed federal agents to secretly obtain up to six years of email correspondence between Fox News correspondent James Rosen and his alleged sources."
Leftist here. It's not OK because its Fox and it's not OK because Obama did it. And FYI I'm sure the government would have also engaged in unconstitutional wire tapping were Romney (or Paul, or [Insert your favorite controlled opposition candidate here]).
Your problem might be that you have mistaken Democrats for actual leftists.
Don't let the Red/Blue Faux News debate cloud this issue. It doesn't matter who did it or to whom it is not okay and this policy should be banned.
Not shocking this is flagged informative by the left leaning slashdot. Gotta circle the troops around the commander and chief. God forbid he is worse than GWB, which is a feat in itself no one could have imagined.
An administration spying on journalists and using the IRS as a political tool is chilling as fuck and every single American ought to be scared as shit of it. Oh wait, you voted for him? Makes it ok I guess!
It's not what they did; it's what the person talking to them was allegedly doing. The Executive branch was investigating a leak from one of its own, and Fox News was on the receiving end of the information, apparently, so by wiretapping Fox News' communications, they were hoping to find the source of the leak.
This is exactly the kind of activity that is supposed to be prohibited by the 1st amendment; attempting to force the press (covertly or not) to reveal the identity of their sources.
They investigate what they choose to investigate for their own ends. No network has given that up. Fox News just tends to be investigating a lot more now, with a left leaning president, while during W they mostly just pandered. Now MSNBC is in pander mode, having done the "investigating" thing during W.
Pretending anything else is just exposing your personal bias. The crime here is our news outlets have such blatant bias, and very little dedication to journalism and conveying the facts to the masses. Worst, people actually think that what these organizations are doing is truth.
Doesn't matter who's fault it is...
who started privacy abuses,
what party is/was in power.
There is something going terribly wrong here.
We, as Americans,
have obviously slid quite a little way down the slippery slope,
toward something quite different than the bastion of freedom we like to think of ourselves as...
We should be doing something more about it than pointing fingers and playing politics.
Fast & Furious is a major scandal. It's perfectly reasonable for Fox to treat it as such.
The countries that failed where not leftist. The only said they were.
Countries that are actually leftist are doing pretty well. Sweden, among others.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Fox is the most honest mainstream new outlet in the US with CNN coming in second. Every news outlet has bias but I think Fox provides less fluff and candy-coated "news". Ms. Crowly at CNN and many many others at CNN are in love with the President. While that is fine, it seems to shape what they say regarding news. For example, the only thing on CNN this week was the Jodi Arias trial which to me isn't newsworthy but they did this to hide the fact the administration (e.g. IRS, DOJ, and President) are all involved in various scandals. Fox reported this and barely mentioned the trial, which is how it should be. You got to hope the news outlets report on things that matter, on things that could screw or unscrew the country. I don't like or dislike President Obama, but I absolutely despise how the media is ignoring the administration's lack of regard for the Constitution, for federal laws, for state laws, or for American values. The only way to keep our politicians in check is to report on the things they do that we don't agree with.
You can attack me all you want but in the end you're just parroting liberal talking points and are unable to think about the future and what's ultimately good for our country. Socialism is where we're headed. Seems good on the surface because you get "free stuff" but when they run out of money to give away the free stuff they tax and tax and tax. When that's not enough they confiscate everything to redistribute it to who needs it. It never ends well so we need to find something short of Socialism. President Obama may be on track or may not be, I personally think he's gone a little too far, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. In the end, it's the media's fault for not holding politicians accountable.
Funny...
When it's a shitbag PFC posting to wikileaks, it's all Save The Whistle-blower around here.
THL phish sticks
Especially as the PFC actually raised his right hand and swore to be a good and obedient soldier. His was an act of treason whereas reporters are generally depended upon to be all about the story they are after. This is Fox News though. A lot of the left hates them enough to not mind if the administration they worship pisses all over the First Amendment. I noticed most of the leftist media though wasn't so happy about it however. They, unlike the liberals here, are smart enough to realize that one day there might be another Republican administration (I doubt it but I guess it could happen) and they don't like the precedent this sets. To me this is just another sign that using e-mail is not a good idea. If I was in the news business I'd start raising pigeons.
> Fast & Furious is a major scandal. It's perfectly reasonable for Fox to treat it as such.
It is absolutely a major scandal. But Fox trivializes the scandal by politicizing it. Instead of making it about government run amok, they keep trying to make it about the "other team" running amok. That is a major disservice because it makes people like the OP tune out. They are the little network that cried Fox.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Leave the facts out of this. You'll destroy the fantasy with facts.
No, he's not a centrist. He's just a really poor leader for his leftist ideals. A leftist who can't get things done is not a centrist.
Read his books. It gets a lot clearer afterwards.
--
By the way, I say this with no problem that he is a leftist. Everyone has the right to their own beliefs. I just want them to be accurate and honest.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
First, Team Obama have had an effort underway since the start of their campaign in late 2007 to push the theme that Fox news is evil/bad/untrustworthy because it is the ONLY network in the US with no financial ties, employment ties, or family ties (by blood or marriage) to the Obama campaign and PR people (look it up... it's shocking how many at the other news outlets have either worked for the Obama admin, fund raised for them, or are married or biologically related to them). No other president in U.S. History has had the media in his pocket to this degree. PBS is financially dependent on him. The NBC network (via GE and including MSNBC) had its CEO in the Obama team, partly funded Obama, and GE itself was untaxed under Obama (but of course this has NOTHING to do with the relentless pro-Obama NBC and MSNBC coverage...). If you watch any news outlet other than Fox, ask yourself how often you have seen a reporter shouting tough questions at Obama and how many times you have seen stories about Obama policies or actions that did not presume he was right. This used to be the norm with ALL news outlets and all previous presidents... not with Obama... with Obama, the press is friendly to him and always assumes as the baseline of any story that he is a good guy doing good things... it's like 1936 Germany... a progressive press spoon-feeding good news about a progressive leader to a public which therefore, seeing nearly nothing negative about him approves of him getting more and more power over their lives... it's bizarre and unsettling to see AMERICANS interviewed about Obama talking about him in such messianic terms as some now do (we've seen this play before and it rarely ends well).
The Obama campaign to de-legitimize Fox has included the effort to flood You-Tube with anti-Fox bits. Obama's human drone supporters flood message boards with anti-Fox stuff all the time in an effort to keep people from getting any news that might be critical of Obama.
Second, it's the Daily Show (which, DUH, is a COMEDY show) that doctors the news clips (to help set-up comedy and satire bits). Fox has repeatedly shown entire news clips then showed Jon Stewart's take on the matters (using hacked bits of the Fox video) and debunked this stuff... Jon Stewart and his supporters either ignore it or say "so what? he's a COMEDIAN...nobody takes this SERIOUSLY!".
People who think that ANYTHING they get on a COMEDY channel from two Democrat SATIRISTS (Stewart and Colbert) is actual NEWS are fools... exactly the sort that Obama NEEDS to vote for him and support him and NEVER watch anything like Fox that might debunk anything he says/does.
You, sir, have been manipulated by the nation's court jester on behalf of his king... and you do not even know it. Very sad indeed
Very good point, no news source has ever been in existence that didn't have an ulterior motive. Weather it was for profit, pander or ideals. The news has always been spoon fed to us.
Well, the bias has manifested itself in different ways and severity. I'm sure that there have been some egregious cases of bias in the past. In past decades though, many news stations took their job seriously and strove for objective news, with biases creeping in mostly as a result of subconscious slips when putting together stories.
Today, because echo chamber news has shown to be more profitable than real news, the bias is mostly mandated by company policy. Fox started first by pandering to the right, MSNBC came next by pandering to the left, and CNN... well, I think CNN just has a gas leak somewhere in their office.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Except Nixon was a saint compared to Obama.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
The simple solution is to fold email into current law so as to enjoy the same protections as snail mail.
LOL, no, if you voted for Romney the government would have engaged in unconstitutional wiretapping anyway. Everyone wants to expand government powers when they're in charge then rein them back when they aren't.
My problem with Fox News and their supporters is their embarrassing inconsistencies on this issue. Roger Ailes said in 1988 that leakers should be tortured and executed, and Fox News personalities have consistently declared war against Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and Wikileaks because they weren't real news organizations. It's the leftists who defended Bradley Manning and also Fox News. Just read everyone who supports Fox News. Even the New York Times got Fox News' back: "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 not only are you wrong about the right, you're also wrong about the left. I guess you must be a GOP.
And about the IRS scandal. Remember when four Republican congressmen asked (and received) a three year IRS probe into the NAACP for saying bad things about President Bush? LOL.
Seriously, the GOP and its supporters should adopt a worldview that's at least internally consistent. The leftists do a better job of it than the right. The GOP argues that we should preserve the Constitution then argues that we should strip American citizens of their Constitutional rights because they were accused of being a bomber. PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Here is the official oath, directly from the Army's website.
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).
You see, first he swears to defend the Constitution and then to obey.
By his lights, the PFC was defending the Constitution against domestic enemies.
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey