Another dent in the public trust

Gazette Editorial Board

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The Obama administration has been drawing fire about how well it's balancing the need for national security with privacy rights. Criticism escalated Tuesday over the Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press telephone records.

Concern about privacy rights and Big Brother fears certainly has been an issue ever since post-9/11 decisions made under the Bush administration and Congress.

But the AP incident looks like cause for more alarm not only among news reporters but all Americans. How far will our federal government intrude into constitutional rights of privacy and freedom of the press, chilling the public's right to know how its government operates?

Last Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed a DOJ order to seize AP telephone records covering a two-month period last year as part of an investigation on government leaks. Some of the phone records apparently were the target of one DOJ criminal investigation into a May 7, 2012, AP story about a CIA operation in Yemen that foiled an al-Qaida plot to set off a bomb on an airplane.

Tuesday, Holder said he recused himself from deciding the seizure order; a deputy AG did it. Doesn't matter.

David Anderson, expert in media law at the University of Texas, told Reuters there is no legal ban on seeking phone records to pursue potential leaks involving national security. “There's nothing unusual about that, except that it's a news organization,” said Anderson. However, he also noted that the subpoenas could have a “terrible effect” by discouraging sources from talking to reporters.

Agreed - especially if the scope of the phone records seized was overly broad instead of narrowly defined, as federal law requires, and, as AP complained, no advance notice was given by DOJ, as also is required.

The White House has denied involvement in the seizure.

Nonetheless, this incident extends a troubling track record for this administration, which has been exceptionally aggressive going after whistle-blowers and intimidating journalists. On top of fresh controversy about White House response to the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeting conservative groups, the AP surveillance issue adds to public mistrust.

Clearly, there's more explaining to do.

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