Even ABC News’s Cokie Roberts recognizes that the Obama administration has far overstepped its constitutional boundaries in obtaining the personal emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen. The political commentator denounced the Obama/Holder Justice Department’s actions on Tuesday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC, claiming the overreach was “appalling.”
Roberts later criticized the administration’s treatment of the press at large, arguing that the White House has its “own broadcasting network” that delivers “unfiltered presidential propaganda to people all the time.” Yes, she said that on MSNBC, failing to see the irony. And yes, this is the same Cokie Roberts that just last week marveled at how Obama’s presidency was “scandal-free.”
The ABC News reporter didn’t mince words about President Obama’s relationship with the press, scolding the administration for going “around the press all the time” and instead opting to use “social media” to promote that unfiltered message.
We’ve chronicled at NewsBusters how the president seems to have hit a nerve with the press after the recent AP scandal, and Cokie Roberts is just the latest in a long line of reporters to condemn the administration for its tactics.
See the relevant transcript below:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/22/13
6:32 a.m. Eastern
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What is different in this case than was different in the Pentagon papers? What is different in this case that was different during Vietnam? What is different in this case than what was different in the Cold War? This has been going on for over 200 years. Why are things different for Barack Obama than every other executive?
COKIE ROBERTS: And the administration went to the AP, said it is national security sensitive. The AP held the story until the administration came back and said we are going to break the story.
SCARBOROUGH: And of course, the great reporting by Ron Fournier. Where Fournier – of course who used to work at the AP – said that the AP is sitting there holding the story and then the White House says just hold it for another day or two because we want to put it our ourselves.
ROBERTS: Our way...that’s the other part of this that is so appalling. Which is that this administration – you know, it's not, more credit to them – goes around the press all the time. They have their own broadcasting network and they use social media to get out to unfiltered presidential propaganda to people all the time. And at the same time that media companies are in terrible financial straits and having to shut down investigative journalism way too much, then you have them going after investigative journalists at the same time?
