CBS Does Its Part In Fueling The “Blame Obama” Mentality
By Jamie Tuesday Nov 10, 2009 3:00pmThe Justice Department has subpoenaed indymedia.us for its visitor logs for a certain date. While this raises big flags regarding online privacy, something else happened with this action that is very odd. The recipient of the subpoena was told she could not talk about it unless authorized by the Justice Department – an essential gag order.
Of course news like this would send the right into a full frenzy that Obama is trying to silence the media, even a left-leaning site like indymedia. Here’s Hot Air’s take on it:
Did the White House try to open up a two-front war on the media? Before the Obama administration launched an all-out battle with conservative-leaning Fox News Channel, the Department of Justice demanded the records of all visitor information of left-leaning Indymedia.us in an remarkable subpoena of a media outlet, for one specific day. No one can recall any precedent for such a wide-ranging probe into the records of a media website, but it may provide a challenge to a national-security law if the DoJ presses hard enough:
But there’s a problem with this “blame Obama” mentality. The original source of the article is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and this is what they say about the subpoena:
On January 30th, 2009, Kristina Clair of Philadelphia, PA — one of the system administrators of the server that hosts the indymedia.us site — received in the mail a grand jury subpoena from the Southern District of Indiana federal court. The FBI had sent an email to Ms. Clair a couple of weeks earlier asking where a subpoena directed at the indymedia.us site should be sent. So, we at EFF were ready and waiting to evaluate the subpoena as soon as it arrived. Yet even we were surprised at what we saw. A PDF of the entire subpoena is available here.
And let’s look at when the actual subpoena was signed:
See that? It was signed on January 23rd of 2009 – three days after Obama was sworn in.
Even CBS has jumped on board with this “blame Obama mentality”:
Under long-standing Justice Department guidelines, subpoenas to members of the news media are supposed to receive special treatment. One portion of the guidelines, for instance, says that "no subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media" without "the express authorization of the attorney general" – that would be current attorney general Eric Holder – and subpoenas should be "directed at material information regarding a limited subject matter."
Eric Holder wasn’t confirmed until February 2, 2009. So how could Holder have authorized a subpoena that was entered into the court record 13 days before even being sworn in?
These attempts to pin everything on Obama are always present in the rightwing blogosphere, but the fact that CBS, a major U.S. media outlet, actually started the latest episode is appalling. You would expect the author of the article would have read the actual subpoena, which they linked,
On the other hand this proves that the Obama Administration isn’t the only administration to declare war on media outlets. We now have even more proof of the Bush administration doing just that, and we have CBS and a rightwing blog helping to confirm it by their own error. I’m sure this case is still moving forward and I don’t know all the facts of it. A new President doesn’t come into office and immediately halt every single prosecution going on in the DOJ. If that happened our country would really be in a mess. So this case is actually a left over from the Bush years.
(cross-posted from IntoxiNation)
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They tried to enforce it with threats and lies. It was a lawless abuse of power by attorneys in the direct control of the Obama administration.
So, have these lawyers have been reprimanded for their illegal conduct? Are they being investigated? By whom? Are we already looking forward and not back?
Obama can't cover for Bush and separate himself at the same time.
lawyers. Their conduct was not illegal. If they have an active case, as it seems to be here, they can subpoena just about anything that may help their case. The prohibition of revealing info on the subpoena is on every form to prevent their investigations from being compromised while they are trying to make their case. It is on all of the subpoena forms used. No knicker twisting necessary here yet. I do want to know who they are investigating, though, and clearly this was a Bush matter. His watch--his responsibility initially. I love a good mystery.
Maybe the Obama administration doesn't take quite the active role in on-going investigations that the Bush administration did.
do not keep records of visitor's IP addresses.
Doesn't change the fact that Obama likes killing more than saving lives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcl-T0P7xYU
His actions speak louder than words.
He threatened congressional freshmen with "excommunication" if they didn't vote for a war appropriation bill, but for REAL health care reform, he barley broke wind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE
He will send troops. Probably more than 40,000!
The never ending stream of Defense spending must continues its inexorable flow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GI-CUVTfo
This defines his purpose.
did he use to barley broke wind? Must be powerful stuff. As I recall however, no decision has been made regarding troop requests for Afghanistan. Shouldn't you save a little outrage for then. If it happens I mean.
I pulled a Neiwert ...so sorry!
Watch and listen please!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vpCBpTbEds
I can't say that I'm surprised that CBS is spreading anti-Obama stories; they've been the Conservative Broadcasting System ever since they let the Kerner Keyboard Kommandos take down Dan Rather.
still a member of Congress when all this happened? No. Well I don't give a damn.
By the way, what did the first Obama declaration of war say, and when was it issued?
July 15, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vpCBpTbEds
was when he voted for the re-authorization of the patriot act...
...which outdates your video...
...unless I'm getting the wars mixed up! ...(hard to keep track with so many)
How is obtaining the entire visitors list to a political website not a fishing expedition and as such a direct violation of the 1st amendment?
As mentioned by an earlier post, the best thing a webmaster could do is not keep IP records beyond a couple of days if at all.
Civil rights and privacy violations are the law of the land. Where have you been?
Why is anyone upset over this? We don't know what is going on yet. Does anyone on this site not know that anything you put on the internet can be traced? Anyone?
It's hardly a secret that websites keep logs that can be traced back to a user. But why is govt going on a broad fishing expedition? It's a form of intimidation and violates the 1st amendment as a result. Anyone should be able to post a grievance about their govt without fear that their IP is going to be traced and then subjected to investigation for the 'crime' of expressing thoughts contrary to whatever the current govt policy is.
If you know who they were after and why, do tell. Panties are bunching up all over the place, why? Speculation? Much ado about nothing? No one knows what this is about. What if it was about tracking coded communications between terror cells? Why do you assume it was about a government grievance? Why do you assume anything.? Better to know something, isn't it?
Are you related to Mike Ryoko the Chicago journalist by any chance?
No relation.
Victims of the previous "pro-life" administration's Great Recession.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/elkh...
Nothing in the CBS post I just checked even mentions the name Obama
or spins this as a second front. However it does include this:
Update 1:59pm E.T.: A Justice Department official familiar with this subpoena just told me that the attorney general's office never saw it and that it had not been submitted to the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. for review. If that's correct, it suggests that U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison and Assistant U.S. Attorney Doris Pryor did not follow department regulations requiring the "express authorization of the attorney general" for media subpoenas -- and it means that neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor Acting Attorney General Mark Filip were involved. I wouldn't be surprised to see an internal investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility; my source would not confirm or deny that.
fiver will read this and change his mind?"
"Don't hold your Pom Poms you administration apologist. fiver is still made his preexisting political predisposition is not covered by
a robust single payer system no Democratic candidate beside Dennis the K. endorsed in 2008.
An Office of Professional Responsibility investigation seems quite justified. We'll see.
I'm not sure what the heck this has to do with health care reform, but I did appreciate the phrase "preexisting political predisposition."
It's kind of like going back in time.
♥
...for appointing an idiot who should have known what "Chimpypoo" smells like.
The new attorney general should clean up the (inevitable poo) as soon as he walks in the office...not play with it!
...rolling it in little balls?
Wake me when Obama actually starts to wage war against the media. How refreshing it would be to see a politician, any politician wage ware with all the media that's failing the public. Within the confines of the Bill of Rights, I'm not talking censorship here, just calling out those news outlets that spin the facts to the point of out right lying, while the media does the same to those elected officials and civil servants guilty of the same. No doubt my dream would be a nightmare for others. Carry on...
a perfectly legitimate reason to look for a particular name on a particular date of a given visitor's log could there? For example, someone making an overt threat against someone like the President? Please tell me if that happened here C&L wouldn't render all assistance to the police without even being asked, never mind subpoenaed.
My first thought when I heard what had happened at Fort Hood was that it was Obama's fault, preceded by Bush's fault, but Obama's especially. I called it the first blood casualty of the realization that Hope and Change, so powerfully promised, were going to be just a crock.
I knew Hope and Change was a crock before the inauguration, right about the time I sat down and wondered why Bill Richardson was being ignored, and finally offered some BS cabinet appointment. It's been a steep downhill ride from there.
But at this point, I only blame the killer. I'm glad he is alive to face the music. I hope every little nurse's aid who passes his room gives him a look he has to avert his eyes from. I hope he's in hell.
But then I'm mean.
The only thing you can say about CBS. is that they appear to be Winning
the Race to the Bottom. The Three Networks i would not be caught Dead
watching are CBS.FOX.and ABC. I don't know of anyone who has ever thought
of FOX. as a "News Channel" and CBS. is short for Corporate Broadcasting
Station. Thanks Viacom you really did a good job of turning CBS.into
the MTV.OF News.
remember this one?
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Administra...
guess who created exec.pay loophole?
bush.., not Obama..
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