Gov't Spied On Fox Journalist, Too

Examined James Rosen's emails, phone records
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2013 3:05 PM CDT
Gov't Spied On Fox Journalist, Too
   (Twitter)

Of all the news organizations the government could spy on, it chose to tangle with ... Fox News. And this one goes further than the AP. The Justice Department examined Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal emails, phone records, and visits to the State Department, the Washington Post reports. The move was part of an investigation into a possible leak of classified information on North Korea, prompted by an article Rosen wrote in 2009 that investigators believed was based on intel from a top-secret CIA report. (The Post reports investigators believe the report was given to him by State Department security adviser Stephen Jin-Woo Kim.) Unlike the AP case, however, the FBI says Rosen may have broken the law, as an "aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator."

Fox is, as you might expect, furious. "We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter," the network's VP of news said in a statement, as reported by Fox News. "In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press." Also pissed? Marco Rubio, who said the feds should "vigorously investigate" national security leaks, but "we expect ... that the investigations focus on the leakers within the government—not on media organizations that have First Amendment protections and serve vital function in our democracy." (More Fox News stories.)

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