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AP CEO Says Government Sources Won’t Talk After Justice Department Probe
BuzzFeed ^ | June 19, 2013 | Evan McMorris-Santoro

Posted on 06/19/2013 11:18:08 AM PDT by SE Mom

WASHINGTON — The CEO of the Associated Press told an audience Wednesday that the Department of Justice has succeeded in muzzling government employees from talking to AP reporters in the weeks since the seizure of AP phone records was revealed.

“What I learned from our journalists should alarm everyone in this room and I think should alarm everyone in this country. The actions of the DOJ against AP are already having an impact beyond the specifics of this particular case,” AP CEO Gary Pruitt told an audience at the National Press Club. “Some of our longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking to us, even about stories that aren’t about national security. In some cases, government employees that we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone, and some are reluctant to meet in person.”

After it was made public that the Justice Department took AP Washington bureau phone records as part of the Obama administration’s aggressive anti-leak operation, Pruitt said the fear among potential sources has spread to reporters from other outlets.

(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeed.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ap; apscandal; benghazi; chilling; doj; fastandfurious; holder; impeachnow; irs
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To: henkster; Black Agnes
Mr. Pruitt; how do you like the monster you created?

And after he smoked his cigarette he blamed the whole mess on Bush.

21 posted on 06/19/2013 11:33:49 AM PDT by Bernard Marx
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To: SE Mom

To every government employee who knows something critical to these investigations and isn’t talking.. YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF COWARDS FOR SELLING AMERICA OUT FOR YOUR LOUSY PAYCHECK.


22 posted on 06/19/2013 11:34:11 AM PDT by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America (PRISON AT BENGHAZI?????)
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To: SE Mom
The AP phone record subpoenas weren't about national security. The hidden intent was to identify government employees who were AP confidential sources for a whole range of issues. Likewise, Eric Holder's subpoena of FOX News/James Rosen records was a search ordered by Obama to find out who in the White House was talking off-the-record to FOX News.
Obama, a megalomaniac, was obsessed with FOX News.
23 posted on 06/19/2013 11:36:55 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: SE Mom
The point is- this administration has muzzled the press.

No, the administration muzzled itself. The press can now scream about it if it chooses. "A travesty of open government" and all that. They can amplify the wistleblowers and seek more. Maybe they'll actually get serious about Fast & Furious never having been 'a botched sting operation,' or what Stevens was doing in Benghazi hustling back Stingers the State Department had provided to Al Quaida...

Naaah. This is all cover for the immigration bill, a death knell for the republic. Then they'll REALLY find out what a monster they've created.

24 posted on 06/19/2013 11:37:15 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (Islam offers choices: Convert, submit, or die.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

That’s exactly how I feel at this point. 0bama and Holder now have their Pravda on a short leash and a choke collar...that they let lead them around. Now they tug in the wrong direction and feel the prongs.

I’m fresh out of crying towels for them. We tried for years to warn them and were ignored or ridiculed. Let them choke.


25 posted on 06/19/2013 11:37:42 AM PDT by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: SE Mom
The best part of this article comes at the end:

"During a question-and-answer session after his speech, Pruitt said he did not believe the Obama administration has had a different relationship with the press than past administrations, but he said that the Obama administration’s aggressive attempts to prosecute leakers have put the administration’s view of the press front and center."

They have the same relationship, except for the prosecutions? Imagine this:


Area Man Says This Relationship is No Different

Bob says his relationship with Sally is no different than the relationships he had with his previous girlfriends; but he said that Sally's numerous attempts to have him arrested and put in jail have put her views of the relationship front and center.



26 posted on 06/19/2013 11:44:22 AM PDT by edwinland
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To: Norm Lenhart

Amen! I want to see those who put the bastard in power suffer. It is what keeps me going.


27 posted on 06/19/2013 11:45:54 AM PDT by sport
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To: sport

It’s all there is left to do. We might as well enjoy it laughing all the while. No one in power wants to stop it.

Perhaps whoever survives whats coming thanks to all this can rebuild a liberal free world for a few decades until they forget again.


28 posted on 06/19/2013 11:48:59 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: SE Mom; abb; sickoflibs; Liz; stephenjohnbanker
“What I learned from our journalists should alarm everyone in this room and I think should alarm everyone in this country. The actions of the DOJ against AP are already having an impact beyond the specifics of this particular case,” AP CEO Gary Pruitt told an audience at the National Press Club. “Some of our longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking to us, even about stories that aren’t about national security.

The AP's learning what it's like to be on the wrong side of elite democrats.

It's not pretty.

Next Gary Pruitt will discover what it's like to be dubbed 'extreme' by these same elites... and the power that word carries. That 'word' means the FBI and IRS will start checking him out. He's a possible domestic terrorist when that label's applied.

Slowly Pruitt will understand why Obama wanted droans to be able to kill American citizens without due process. It has nothing to do with the few foreign 'Americans' in alqaeda - and everything to do with a 'nose under the tent' goal of killing 'extremists' in the US... "Extremist" being defined as people who don't agree with elite liberals in power... a person like Pruitt.

Pruitt will start to fear... others will start to pull away from him.

Many people wish they could have lived in a time when people could be heroic. When the challenges were great and the risks high. Gary Pruitt's going to have that opportunity... he's having it right now. We wish him well.

PS I'm proud of the AP and of Gary Pruitt.

29 posted on 06/19/2013 12:17:34 PM PDT by GOPJ (Why don't Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners? - Coulter)
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To: SE Mom

Or she’ll go the way of Michael Hastings; He did a column on Why Democrats Like to Spy on us recently... Horrific car crash.


30 posted on 06/19/2013 12:17:58 PM PDT by AliVeritas (Pray. Penance. Isa 5:18-21 Isa 10:1-3)
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To: SE Mom

Well, well, well. The media is losing its sources because Obama has them muzzled.


31 posted on 06/19/2013 12:23:21 PM PDT by BAW ( Obama's NSA.is reading this.)
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To: AliVeritas

You know. .it really IS kind of odd about Hastings. His last story really hit O and the Dems hard.

The accounts of his accident are peculiar as well.


32 posted on 06/19/2013 1:15:12 PM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: SE Mom

We should make sure a great deal of attention is paid to that last article in his memory! ;-)


33 posted on 06/19/2013 1:29:36 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then!)
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To: SE Mom

Hey Gary Pruitt, who did you vote for in the last two presidential elections?


34 posted on 06/19/2013 1:41:55 PM PDT by bkopto (Obama and Biden are merely symptoms of a more profound, systemic disease in American body politic.)
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To: SE Mom
the Department of Justice has succeeded in muzzling government employees from talking to AP reporters in the weeks since the seizure of AP phone records was revealed.

This is why a special prosecutor has to be appointed. He can guarantee privacy and immunity and protect the witnesses.

35 posted on 06/19/2013 4:18:23 PM PDT by Rapscallion (Obama is trying to use the power of the government against the people he dislikes.)
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To: SE Mom
The point is- this administration has muzzled the press. That’s dangerous as hell. If sources won’t even speak with AP...

Exactly! They may have created the monster but the monster is also after us.

36 posted on 06/19/2013 10:01:35 PM PDT by tsowellfan
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