The DOJ having the authority to do warrantless wiretaps without presenting justification to a judge is alarming. The DOJ having the authority to do such wiretapping against reporters in the media, who provide the fourth estate to protect -and check- the balance of power, is well beyond alarming.

It was only fair that Associated Press reporter Jim Kuhnhenn got the first question to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at Tuesday’s press briefing. Coming just one day after news broke that the Department Of Justice had secretly seized two months worth of phone records from AP reporters, Kuhnhenn used his question to tie the AP scandal together with the other troubling news stories of the week for the Obama administration.

“For fear of stating the obvious,” Kuhnhenn began, “the White House right now is confronting a confluence of issues: Benghazi talking points, IRS reviews of political groups, Justice Department’s review of journalists’ phone records, and in every instance either the president or you have placed the burden of responsibility someplace else… But it is the president’s administration, so I wonder, doesn’t responsibility for setting tone, for setting direction ultimately rest with the president on these matters?” (more…)

Listen to what Jay Carney is stating here in regard to the White House knowledge of the issues surrounding the targeting of Tea Party and Conservative groups.

Last Friday the same original media sources (the reporters on the phone conference with the IRS official who apologized) said the report was to be released within the next day.  As a result of the admission the media story quickly took off.

Now The White House is saying:  We’ll defer comment, and “wait for the report” etc.

You know this “report” has not only been scrutinized at length by the protectors, but has been re-written more than a few times as the points are critiqued by all the concentric circles that compromise the White House and Cabinet political machine. Revisions, revisions, revisions…..

WASHINGTON DC – Republicans are training their attacks on acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller amid new revelations that he and the agency’s former top official knew employees were targeting conservative groups but failed to notify Congress despite repeated requests.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, and 10 other GOP lawmakers wrote to then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman on June 18, 2012 demanding answers about why the agency requested donor information from groups seeking nonprofit status.

By the time this letter was sent, Shulman and Miller, who was the deputy IRS commissioner at the time, were aware of the extent of the targeting program for about a month. (more…)

First “his” point:

Then “her” counter point: (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – Senator Ted Cruz says the IRS scandal “harkens back to the days of Richard Nixon,” and proves that President Obama keeps an “enemies list.”

“This is part of a distressing pattern of the Obama administration of being less than honest with the American people and using the machinery of government to target their political opponents,” Cruz tells National Review in an interview.

“It harkens back to the days of Richard Nixon and maintaining a political enemies list and treating the federal government as a tool to exact the administration’s retribution,” he adds. (more…)

Update 2:  The White House Reponds –  (Politico) — The White House has “no knowledge” of the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.

“Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,” he said in a statement.  (link)

Update 1 :  Eric Holder personally approved of wiretapping reporters – On Monday afternoon, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had “secretly obtained two months of telephone records” from 20 phone lines assigned to reporters and editors from the global news organization. The shocking revelation comes on top of news that the IRS targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny. It will be harder for President Obama to pin the DOJ’s action on lower level bureaucrats, however, because requests to subpoena news organization records require the approval of Attorney General Eric Holder.  (link)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news. (more…)

Given the fact the media huddled with the White House prior to the Carney press briefing this should not be a surprise.   Nah, probably just another one of those now famous NBC production mistakes….  move along, move along…. nothing to see here folks….  Look, over there, shiny things.

(Via Newsbusters)  If you were a journalist reporting on Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks, wouldn’t you find it interesting that he was a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama twice?

Someone at NBC News didn’t according to Hicks’s attorney Victoria Toensing who disclosed the spike job to NewsMax host Steve Malzberg on WMAL radio Saturday

VICTORIA TOENSING: By the way, Mr. Hicks is a Democrat. He voted for Hillary – I’ve yet to announce this – he voted for Hillary in the primary and Obama twice. You know what? NBC spiked the story where I told it before the hearings. It’s just amazing what the press is still trying to do to cover this up…So they try to make this partisan because of the lawyer. Well I’m not the messenger, he’s the messenger…The modus operandi, you know, to find anything they can do to just attack. So why wouldn’t NBC News report this? (more…)

Thermonuclear Splodey Head Warning:  Liberals Coast To Coast rabid with worry about the potential sale of the Tribune Co. media organization to the Koch Brothers.

Nothing would bring such joy to the Patriot movement than to see this sale take place.  Far-left “Liberals” have historically held a death grip on the media complex – this would be a serious blow to their media stranglehold.   

Los Angeles […]  As Tribune Co. emerges from a four-year bankruptcy, the predominantly Democratic city is quivering at the rumor that libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch may be interested in buying the LA Times. The brothers are believed to be the only group prepared to buy all eight Tribune papers, including the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant, as a package — how Tribune would like to sell them.  (link)

(more…)

Imagine the media response if George Bush were in office and the groups targeted were liberals…

WASHINGTON Associated Press  — A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011.

The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted.

On Friday, the IRS apologized for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if those groups were violating their tax-exempt status. (more…)